Patti Phillips creates paintings that are immediately identifiable as her own.  Each of her oils employs a dominant color that appears almost to rise from the canvas in velvety billows.  She favors the large, soft Sennelier Oil Sticks, which allow her to "smush" hues onto her surfaces with not only brushes but also her fingers.  Furthermore, whether her subject is leaves or shells or fish in water, the sinewy lines of her figures undulate gently and turn back on themselves as if whorled by eddies of wind or gravity.  She finds it so important to draw from real-life that even when using a photograph as reference, she is sure to return to its place of origin at least once before completing that piece.

Phillips lives in the Bay Area, where she has exhibited extensively, including in an annual month-long solo show at a busy local business.  She has also traveled the world extensively—experiences she feel has "given my soul color to put onto canvas."