Patricia Araujo’s paintings of iconic San Francisco buildings and the city’s ever-changing urban landscape have been showcased in numerous exhibitions and galleries. But last November, the accomplished artist marked an especially meaningful milestone in her career—her first exhibit in Bogotá, Colombia, her homeland. Featuring 11 oil paintings of some of the city’s most prominent buildings, The City—Bogotá Forever, was on display at the B.O.G Hotel until mid-January.
“Having double nationality, exhibiting in Colombia has always been my dream,” the artist told 48 Hills. “About a decade ago, I decided to start painting Bogotá’s architecture. I visit every other year and have an archive of photos I’ve taken.”
A love of architecture and art is embedded in Araujo’s DNA. Her parents moved from Colombia to Florida— where she was born in Miami—after her father, an architect, landed a job in Disney’s Imagineering unit. (Imagineers design and build Disney rides, restaurants, and hotels.)
When she was five, Araujo’s parents divorced. She and her mother moved back to Bogotá where she visited her grandparents’ home. The building’s elegant façade inspired her first drawings.
“It was an old brick building that no longer exists,” said Araujo. “But it had this grand entrance with an arched doorway and emerald-green stained-glass window. I’d try to replicate that entrance in my drawings. And then I’d do floorplans and draw my imaginary dream house.”
Araujo credits her mother for always encouraging her to make art. And summer visits with her father in Florida for continuing to fuel her passion for architecture. She loved watching him at work in the Disney studios.
“He’d always be doing beautiful renderings. He was quite the artist.”
After finishing her secondary education in Colombia, Araujo moved to the Bay Area and enrolled in San Mateo College to follow in her father’s footsteps and become an architect. But as much as she loved buildings, she wasn’t fond of the calculus and other advanced math architects must master.
“I’m glad I took those courses—I learned a lot from them,” she said. “But I realized architecture was a very different field than what I’d imagined. I didn’t see myself creating buildings.”
Instead, she focused on oil painting, something she’d dabbled in when she was younger but had put aside. She transferred to the College of Notre Dame (now Notre Dame de Namur University) in Belmont and earned a BFA in 1997. After graduating, she moved to San Francisco where she worked in retail and at galleries. Her BFA gave her a solid grasp of figurative, landscape and lifestyle painting.
But she was still drawn to buildings and wanted to take her artistic skills to the next level. Araujo decided to specialize in fine art painting. She applied to the former San Franciso Art Institute, got accepted, and graduated with a second BFA in 2005.
During this time, she lived in SoMa. Walking through the evolving area on her way to her job at the downtown Banana Republic, she was struck by its gritty allure. Amid all the new construction, old architectural gems along Market Street like the Golden Gate Theatre and The Hibernia caught her eye.
“I began to fall more and more in love with the neighborhood,” said Araujo, who now resides on a sailboat with her husband in Sausalito. “I started doing sketches of the buildings and making time to paint after work.”
The resulting paintings were featured in Heart of the City, a collaborative exhibit with the late photographer Mark Ellinger in 2008. The show was part of the opening celebration for North of Market/Tenderloin Community District’s new offices. Both artists captured the beauty and splendor of decaying and abandoned landmarks in the area. The exhibition also coincided with the release of Araujo’s book, SOMA Seen, featuring paintings and drawings of the neighborhood’s architecture.
The chance to exhibit in Bogotá came her way through her stepbrother, also an artist, who lives there and has connections in the city’s art scene. When he told her about the B.O.G. Hotel show opportunity, Araujo already had canvases prepped with outlines of the buildings she wanted to paint from a previous opportunity that fell through. But she only had seven months to transform them into paintings. Plus, she had to juggle time in the studio with time running Sunshine Flowers, the wholesale flower distribution business her mother—who’s easing into retirement— started in the late ’80s.
All that hustling paid off. While Araujo’s art has garnered plenty of press over the years, her Bogotá exhibition received the most coverage she’s ever had. The local press praised her dramatic paintings that not only captured the city’s stunning architecture, but also showcased her love of color.
“Color is probably what I try to bring out in every piece,” she said. “I like to bring in brightness and vibrancy.”
Araujo’s appreciates all the positive attention lavished on The City—Bogotá Forever. But she’s even more grateful that the exhibit brought her life full circle. She got to share her work with her many relatives and friends who still live in Bogotá. And pay homage to her first home, the city where her love of buildings and art was born.
Learn more about Araujo’s work here.
