Larry Stanton

Patricia Gren Hayes is a Bay Area Figurative/Feminist Art Movement artist who studied at Winnipeg Public Art School in 1950. She received early recognition in Museum and Gallery competitions and exhibitions and was awarded a Special Education in Art recognition by the Winnipeg Museum of Fine Art as well as a scholarship to the Banff College of Fine Art. Further studies were at the University of Manitoba.

Hayes was a Member of Winnipeg Free Press Sketch Club and was a cartoonist and paste-up for a French-English bi-weekly in Eastern Canada. She studied outdoor Impressionism in New York, 1960; attended the California College of Arts and Crafts, 1962, and BA, U.C. Berkeley, 1976, where she studied under Elmer Bischoff, David Simpson, Joan Brown, Felix Ruvolo, Yolanda Lopez and Vincent Perez. Hayes started a freelance commercial art business in 1963; copyrighted a National Cartoon, 1976, and served as Exhibition Director for San Francisco Woman Artists Gallery and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1976–78. She was a workshop instructor at the San Francisco Women Artists Gallery, 1977–85, and was Manager/Owner Stanton Art Gallery, Alameda, CA, 1976–82. Hayes exhibited solo at Berkeley Marina, 1974; Oakland Center for The Visual Arts, "Images of Women," 1979.

Figurative art, as opposed to abstract art, retains features from the observable world in its representational depictions of subject matter. Most commonly, figurative paintings reference and explore the human body, but they can also include landscapes, architecture, plants and animals — all portrayed with realism.

While the oldest figurative art dates back tens of thousands of years to cave wall paintings, figurative works made from observation became especially prominent in the early Renaissance. Artists like Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and other Renaissance masters created naturalistic representations of their subjects.

Pablo Picasso is lauded for laying the foundation for modern figurative art in the 1920s. Although abstracted, this work held a strong connection to representing people and other subjects. Other famous figurative artists include Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud. Figurative art in the 20th century would span such diverse genres as Expressionism, Pop art and Surrealism.

Today, a number of figural artists — such as Sedrick Huckaby, Daisy Patton and Eileen Cooper — are making art that uses the human body as its subject.

Because figurative art represents subjects from the real world, natural colors are common in these paintings. A piece of figurative art can be an exciting starting point for setting a tone and creating a color palette in a room.

Browse an extensive collection of figurative paintings on 1stDibs.