Zia Sunset (2020) Painting by Patricia Marin Miranda

When walking with a friend in Santa Fe, New Mexico, a raven flew overhead. My friend wished for a raven feather and at that moment one fell from the bird. We couldn’t believe it.  I picked it up and painted hummingbirds on the black feather and gave it to her as a gift. Her well-known photographer husband was so impressed, he encouraged me to pursue painting on feathers professionally. And so I developed a unique technique of assembling multiple feathers into a larger “canvas” and began painting Southwestern and Native American scenes on a canvas of real wild bird feathers. Each 100% natural feather is carefully selected and then assembled together to make a “canvas” that is studied for its texture, feather vane lines and contours that are then used as a natural part of the painted image flowing and mixing with the acrylic paint from my brush. Each image idea is inspired by the uniqueness of each feather to create the painting and then it becomes part of the finished painted scene. There are no rules in art. When people make rules they destroy art.

Patricia grew up in San Jose, Costa Rica.  As a young girl, she remembers artists painting on single feathers. This is popular throughout Central and South America.  She fell in love with this art form. Making art with feathers has its roots as far back as the Aztec Empire prior to the Spanish Conquest and is known as arteplumeria.

Birds are very symbolic for Patricia. When she was young she was always watching them. She wanted to fly like them. She wanted to be free, to go anywhere, to feel the wind.

When she moved to Santa Fe just three years ago she fell in love with the landscapes of New Mexico. The influence of Colonial Spanish and Native American cultures that are seen throughout this unique part of the world touched the soul of her own Spanish and indigenous roots. That raven feather gave her the freedom she was looking for. And now collectors have discovered the energy, freedom and power of the feathers used in her canvas displaying iconic painted scenes of the Southwest.  Self-taught, she works from her studio gallery in the historic art district of Canyon Rd. and owns another gallery in downtown Santa Fe that exhibits her unique artwork exclusively.

• Nationality: UNITED STATES
• Date of birth : unknown date
• Artistic domains: Works by professional artists, Represented by a Gallery,
• Groups: Professional Artist Contemporary American Artists Artists presented by a gallery