Paddy Cohn

Calabash Boom

2021

Paddy Cohn is an abstract artist whose sensuous, mysterious explorations into textures, layers and distressed materials reflect a childhood spent in the landscapes of the Caribbean. After graduating from FIT, Paddy spent a decade in New York City as a successful textile designer, only to return to her roots in St. Thomas in 1989. There, a passion was born for vibrant optics, distressed textures and the forgotten elements of nature- from sand to mica to driftwood. Her work began with more literal renderings of the Caribbean landscape, expressed in seascape and portraiture. It evolved into the opulent color, mixed-media abstractions she is known for today. Work born, though more quietly, of Caribbean inspiration. Paddy’s work has been collected, commissioned and displayed in corporate and private collections from the Caribbean to New York to Europe. Artist statement: Like the sun-ravaged Caribbean landscapes of her youth, nature saturates Paddy Cohn’s work. Colors explode and textures merge and mutate. Layers of paint mix with elements of nature, effaced, defaced, eroded and distilled. Like maps of some invisible reality, only mystery and beauty remain. In the words of artist Gerhard Richter, to whom her work has been compared, “My paintings know more than I do.”