If you possess an interesting face and happen to run into Patti Doll, don’t be surprised if she makes an unusual request.
“I’ll stop people on the street if I think I want to do a picture,” Doll said.
By picture, she means painting a portrait.
“I’ve just been fascinated with portraits forever,” Doll said.
An exhibit of portraits by Doll will run from Sept. 4 through Oct. 9 at the Envision Gallery, 535 W. Douglas Ave., Suite 160. It kicks off with a First Friday reception from 4-7 p.m.
The 15 portraits feature residents of BelVilla Assisted Living in Andover. Doll’s mother, Rita Crossland, lived at Bel Vista for about eight months before her death in 2017. Doll said she decided to make current residents the subject of a series of portraits last year.
She started by getting to know them better, hoping her artwork would reflect lives “rich with experience, resilience, humor and wisdom.”
One resident, Doll said, had spent eight months in a coma, only to wake up blind and “rebuild her life with remarkable determination.”
“It’s just turned into a wonderful experience meeting the people there and painting their portraits,” she said.
Doll figured she’d complete the project fairly quickly, but then she was diagnosed with macular degeneration and glaucoma. She already suffered from chronic dry eyes.
“I can’t paint for long periods of time because of that,” she said. “My eyes get tired. I paint for maybe 20 minutes at a time. I used to paint all day.”
Nevertheless, she completed the portraits and unveiled them at BelVilla this spring. Experiencing low vision, Doll said, has given her an understanding that being seen “is more than being looked at — it’s being acknowledged, valued and remembered.” And she hopes people take a similar understanding away from her paintings.
Originally from Kansas City, Doll and her husband, Mark, have been married 53 years. “He’s been really supportive of this whole project. My dining room is my studio.”
They have two children and five grandchildren. She worked as a homemaker, a social worker for Catholic Charities and the Salvation Army and a weight loss consultant with Jenny Craig.
She started painting about 30 years ago and became more serious about it over the last decade. She’s a member of the Kansas Art Guild and serves as president of Wichita Fine Art Atelier, a nonprofit that offers classes and workshops at the Wichita Studio School, 751 George Washington Blvd. One of her portraits won Best of Show in the 2022 Art is Ageless competition sponsored by Presbyterian Manors, and her painted sculpture of the Keeper of the Plains is on display at the Mid-American All-Indian Museum.
But she hadn’t staged her own exhibition until now.
“At 73, this is a first,” she said.
Doll plans to give the portraits to their subjects after the exhibit.
While she’s dabbled in other subjects, Doll leaves no doubt that her preferred object to paint is the human face.
“You know, it’s the singularity of the face,” she said. “To me, it’s absolutely fascinating to see the different qualities in a face.”
