Patrick Farrell

BORN: March 14, 1940, in Hardwood, Michigan

DIED: 2016, in Milwaukee, WI

Patrick was the youngest of four children.

The family later moved to Cudahy, WI. Raised in a trailer park, and troubled by problems at home, Farrell stopped going to school at age 14 and never went beyond the eighth grade in school.

Farrell worked as a busboy and an errand boy for a record distribution firm and got his own apartment at 17. Then — without ever taking an art class — he started painting landscapes and still lifes to cover the walls.

After stumbling upon an art show at a shopping center and realizing his work was comparable, Farrell decided to display some of his paintings and woodcuts in an art fair at Capitol Court. Soon he was making a living selling his creations to collectors around the country, gaining critical recognition and evolving as an artist.

Farrell grew into a renowned painter, breathing three-dimensional life into oil and canvas with a skill that was totally self-taught. He was a remarkable self-made man against all odds. By his spirit of adventure he created an incredible life for himself.

Self-taught artist Patrick Farrell painted super-realistically in a trompe l'oeil style. He was a talented phenomenon, and one of the state's most successful, self-taught, painters who passed too early.

His work — which included his signature subjects, bowls of fruit, vases of flowers and butterflies — was featured in 35 solo exhibitions nationally and can be found in public and private collections throughout the United States.