Patrick Connors, Columbia Bridge, Summer Morning

"Initially painters Arthur DeCosta and Ben Kamihira drew me to the [Pennsylvania] Academy to study . . . Both were concerned with the depiction of light and subsequent atmospheric effects; their work was my first inkling that paintings could be poems about light." - Patrick Connors

Here Patrick Connors captures the graceful arches and architecture of the Columbia Bridge, which spans the Schuylkill River about a mile below Boathouse Row in Philadelphia. Made in the studio from plein air oil sketches, a perspective drawing, and memory, this painting offers a view lit by late morning summer sunlight.

Born in Prince George's County, Maryland, Connors moved to Philadelphia in 1976 to study at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the University of Pennsylvania. His work is exhibited internationally and is held in both private and public collections. He teaches at the Graduate School of the New York Academy of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy, and the Institute of Classical Architecture's New York and Rome programs.