Genie Hudson Patrick
Genie Hudson Patrick (1938–2020) was a painter and educator based in Iowa, serving as Adjunct Faculty in the School of Art & Art History at the University of Iowa, where she taught drawing and painting. She earned her MA from the University of Colorado (1962) and BFA from the University of Georgia (1960), with additional studies at the University of Illinois, Colorado Springs Fine Art Center, and Mississippi State College for Women.
Born in 1938 and raised in Columbus, Mississippi, Genie Hudson Patrick was the daughter of Ralph and Louise Hudson. She met her husband, Joseph Patrick, while studying art at the University of Georgia in Athens. After continuing their studies in Boulder, Colorado, they moved to Iowa City in 1965, where they raised two children, made art, and taught at the University of Iowa—Genie as an Adjunct Professor of Drawing. In the early 1970s, the Patricks began spending time in Mexico, first in San Miguel de Allende and later in Oaxaca, where they established a small ranch as studio and residence.
Genie Hudson Patrick’s early paintings featured flat, patterned abstractions of elements in the landscape. According to Genie, these scenes often pointed her toward patterns of textures and color differentiations, elements that could be translated into a rhythmic field of shapes that reflected those qualities she had seen in nature. Later in her career, she focused on the Iowa landscape, capturing fields, roads, bridges, barns, silos, and the dynamic interplay of sky and land. These paintings often integrated architectural forms and explored spatial relationships, light, and atmosphere, combining perceptual observation with interpretive expression.
“As I grew more familiar with Iowa as my subject I began to feel that the sky as it related to the land had to be captured. The effect of the sky’s light and clouds upon the land’s forms lying below it became a primary subject. Because the sky is always changing, I look for instances when the shapes and linear movements of both sky and land connect in composition, spirit, and mood. As I work on each painting I attempt to go beyond my initial visual responses toward an interpretive rather than a literal transcription of the landscape. I want my paintings to become simultaneously perceptual and conceptual, objective and subjective, and to reflect my observations of nature combined with my human experience.” (Genie Hudson Patrick, geniepatrick.com/statement/. Accessed Sept. 2025)
