Tehama County Arts Council

MAIN EVENT GALLERY

The Main Event Gallery is located in historic Downtown Red Bluff. Tehama County Arts Council members are proud to volunteer their time to attend the gallery.

​

Main Event Gallery | 710 Main St., Red Bluff, CA 

Gallery Hours: Thursday - Saturday | 11 am - 5 pm

"I've always had an interest in art and design," said artist Patty Mackey." My mother was a professional seamstress here in Red Bluff and that's where I learned to put colors together and designing clothes I made."

"While still living at home as a teenager I did a lot of baking and after I had my first child, I started decorating cakes," Mackey said. "Over the past 39 years, people kept saying that my cakes were so beautiful they didn't want to cut into them and that I should put them on canvas."

​

About 4 ½ years ago, Patty enrolled in the Mendocino College Art Class in Ukiah. " I started painting with oil medium because it was more the same consistency of frosting.  After the first three semesters, I started using the technique called Impasto which gives my paintings a 3-D effect. It may take longer to dry, but the effect is quite different from painting flat on the canvas."  The impasto technique dates back to 17th century artists such as Rembrandt and Van Gogh, who often laid their paints in thick layers on their canvases to give their subjects texture, convey emotion and a dimensional impression.             

Mackey paints a wide variety of subjects ranging from western, flowers, abstracts, wildlife, sophisticated ladies, wine and cheese. " I do custom orders for people, bringing that special picture to life" she said.  " I still decorate cakes for all occasions, from weddings to baby showers and everything in between. "

Patty's art room is her pool table that looks out through large windows with a view of  the Sacramento River.  "That's my inspiration, she said.   " I start two to three and sometimes four paintings at a time because by the time I get to the fourth canvas, the first painting is ready to be added to, and so on until they are all finished.

"A lot of my ideas come to me in a dream," Mackey said. " Some true life and some from the internet where I put several ideas together into one to make it my own 3-D painting. I use different textures to get the effect I want using not only a brush, but also a palette knife, paper towel, q-tip, cardboard, sticks and rocks, or my fingers.  It's actually a lot of fun coming up with different things to get just that perfect effect.  That's what makes my paintings unique. 

Frames for her paintings are custom made by Patty and her husband Phil to accentuate each painting. Some of the frames are also 3-D.   Another interest of Patty's is jewelry making. These pieces are on display in the Main Event Gallery.

Mackey has exhibited her art in several venues.  While at Mendocino College, her art was displayed in two different shows.  She's also shown her works at the Art Gallery in Lakeport, the Steel Winery Harvest Festival in Kelseyville and in Lake County for the last four years.