The morning light filters through the trees surrounding Pat Calderone’s mountain home, casting the same ethereal glow that illuminates her nature-inspired paintings. An accomplished artist, Calderone’s name has become synonymous with fine art in Highlands, creating works in watercolor, acrylics, charcoal, and mixed media as layered and complex as the mountain landscape that inspires them.
A native of Minneapolis, Calderone moved to Highlands nearly three decades ago with her partner.
“I’m a southern girl by choice,” she says, and it’s clear the mountains chose her back. The trees, storms, and wild creatures that animate this landscape have become co-conspirators in her creative process. The deck behind her home serves as both sanctuary and studio, where she watches storms roll across the peaks and finds inspiration in the interplay of light and shadow, weather and wilderness.
Calderone’s artistic evolution mirrors the landscape that surrounds her – organic, unpredictable, and deeply rooted.
Beginning with the precise discipline of watercolor, she gradually broke through what she calls “purist boundaries,” layering acrylics over pastels over watercolors, each medium preserved with fixatives like geological strata. Her 2017 pilgrimage to France ignited a creative explosion, introducing French phrases and European sensibilities into her already rich visual vocabulary.
Her canvases range from intimate 18-inch portraits to commanding six-foot bears that seem to step from the surrounding forest into her studio. Each piece captures what she describes as the “spirit” of her subjects – whether a Cherokee-inspired figure connecting to ancestral lands or a pheasant caught in a moment of perfect stillness. The work is unmistakably hers: nature-inspired yet deeply human, wild yet accessible.
Beyond her own artistic practice, Calderone has become a cultural cornerstone of the region. As past president of the Art League of Highlands-Cashiers, she has nurtured countless emerging artists through private instruction and mentorship. Currently seeking gallery spaces, her work is shown regularly across the region.
She also teaches, opens her studio by appointment, and mentors other artists with generosity and grit. Today, her home studio serves as both creative sanctuary and intimate gallery space, where visitors can experience her latest explorations of feminine mysticism and Mother Earth symbolism by appointment.
With decades of work behind her – enough to “fill up four books,” she notes with characteristic understatement – Calderone continues to find wonder in the daily miracles of mountain life. Her three-panel masterpiece of red-haired women surrounded by butterflies and flowers stands as testament to her belief in art’s power to capture “amazing pieces of humanity.”
“I’m always discovering something – some shade, some shape I’ve never quite seen,” she says. “As long as that keeps happening, I’ll keep painting.”
Those interested in experiencing her work firsthand can arrange a viewing by calling (828) 371-0376. In choosing to become a Southern artist, Pat Calderone found not just a new home, but her truest artistic voice.
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