CAPTURING NATURE'S PORTRAIT IS ELUSIVE WORK, revealing one moment the delicately fading shades of autumnal evening, the next - the vivid brightness of spring flowers and fresh rain. From leaves to lakes, hats to hyacinths, Patricia Stanton has captured the moody magic of enhanced photography with simple beauty and the "eye of an artist".

There is a distinctive movement in her work, indicating a feeling for a wide variety of subjects, from macro shots of flowers, multi-image clusters, architectural nooks and crannies, to broad, sweeping landscapes. Limiting herself to one style or subject would restrict the wonderful freedom of expression one can experience through the camera - "it flows, it sings, it soars, it dances, it has rhythm and harmony" - many of the elements she found in music through the years. Add to that today's new technology with imaging and the "world is my oyster."

Patricia's state of the art capture and printing processes were a late step in her evolvment as an photographic artist. For those who choose not to embrace the new, so be it. If she had not embraced the new, she would be deprived of some of the most exciting and beautiful artistic possibilities available today. But this is all a part of history, as artists have produced a refreshing, personal slant on their mediums. At first they were scorned, but in the end, they emerged as legends of art, i.e., Picasso, Monet, Sargeant, O'Keeffe.

Patricia is mostly self-taught, preferring to read, and experiment with many new techniques she encounters. An early mentor stirred the fires of Patricia's imagination toward the abstract in photography with soft focus images. She finds tremendous excitement in the versatility of the camera. When she looks at a flower or a landscape, her natural instinct for exciting shapes, patterns, color and design are all present. Many people have remarked about the Zen/spiritual, sometimes haunting quality of her work. There is a simplicity, a fluidity, a sense of peacefulness evinced in her work. She never "learned" the laws of placement on a page, preferring to be led by emotion for the scene in the view finder. Of her ability to "see things as an artist" she says, it is a gift, just as her voice is a gift.

She feels she is only one instrument through which a beautiful image is borne - that some sort of "magic" went on after the shutter clicked, and that the film and the light and the technology of the camera as well as the editing processes are all working in harmony to create the end result.

Today her photographs hang in numerous corporate collections and business offices as well as in thousands of private homes in the U.S. and Europe. She has formed her own company; has won numerous awards and ribbons; and has had several solo exhibitions in corporate offices and galleries. She also continues to exhibit her work at art festivals in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado.

For 27 years, music dominated Patricia's life. Through the years she has performed as soprano soloist in various oratorio and opera productions, symphony orchestras as a guest artist, and with professional choral groups. Her life was filled with the pursuit of excellence in music until she began to have this wonderful affair with photography. She often relates the gift and joy of photography to her musical experience, saying that photography is even more gratifying; it lasts longer and seems to reach a larger audience because of its tangibility.