Patrice Young Tovar grew up amid the lush forests and mystical lakes of the Pacific Northwest. Her spiritual connection with nature, insatiable curiosity, and elemental sensuality have propelled her development as an artist.

From the time Patrice could first hold a pencil, she constantly drew. Her artistic talent was recognized as early as age eight, and over the next few years she studied oil painting under Hazel MacDonald and James Lockard. By high school, she was taking college level art courses, accepting commissions for paintings, and giving painting demonstrations. In addition, she received five gold key awards from the New York based Scholastic Art & Writing Awards program for “work demonstrating the highest levels of originality, technique, and personal vision.”

Patrice continued formal art instruction at the Cornish School of Allied Arts in Seattle, Washington and at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. While attending Stanford’s campus in Florence, Italy she immersed herself in the works and histories of the old masters. During this period, her art education was further enriched by frequent trips to Rome, Paris, Barcelona, and other European art capitols. After graduating from Stanford, Patrice’s love of design and nature led her to also earn a degree in landscape architecture from the University of Washington in Seattle.

An avid explorer, Patrice experienced living in Colorado, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Eastern and Western Washington State, as well as traveling extensively in the United States, Canada, and Europe.

Patrice’s expertise in art, design, and nature enabled her to work professionally as a fine artist, a commercial artist, a landscape architect, and an environmental planner. In 2007, Patrice began to focus on her primary passion: creating art. Now residing in Edmonds, Washington on the shores of Puget Sound, Patrice expresses the power, beauty, and rhythms of nature in her vibrant paintings.