Patrick Saunders is a painter creating fine art while traveling North America in an Airstream with his photographer wife, Kimberly. He has studied with many renowned painters, including Mark English, Malcolm Liepke, Wilbur Niewald, Richard Schmid, Carolyn Anderson, and Burton Silverman. Patrick paints a variety of subjects, including portraits, landscapes, cityscapes, and florals, and frequently teaches workshops during his travels.

After graduating from the Kansas City Art Institute with a BFA, Patrick spent a decade as an artist at Hallmark Cards before returning to the KCAI to accept a full-time faculty position teaching illustration, painting, animation, and web design. Teaching led to a job offer in advertising, where, as a Group Creative Director, Patrick led teams of marketing professionals in New York, San Francisco, and globally, producing advertising for clients such as Colgate-Palmolive, Whole Foods, Hill’s Pet Food, FedEx, Revlon, Southwest Airlines, Tom’s of Maine, Nextel, Skyy, Kashi, and Kellogg’s.

Throughout his career, Patrick has been recognized for outstanding work, earning awards from the Portrait Society of America, the Oil Painters of America, the American Advertising Federation, the International Academy of the Visual Arts, the Web Marketing Association, the Society of Illustrators and Communication Arts. He was featured by Southwest Art Magazine as one of their 21 Artists to Watch Under 31 in 2001. His KCAI students voted to honor Patrick with an Educator of the Year award.

In 2013, Patrick began plein air painting, and has won awards from numerous nationally recognized events and organizations, including Plein Air Easton, the Laguna Plein Air Painters Association, Plein Air Texas, Plein Air Richmond, Maui Plein Air, Telluride Plein Air, Lighthouse Plein Air and Sedona Plein Air. In September 2018, Patrick was the cover artist and featured in Southwest Art Magazine. Patrick is a Signature Member of the Laguna Plein Air Painters Association, Oil Painters of America and the American Impressionist Society.