Patricia Warfield Jinishian Scholarship Fund Established At New Canaan's Silvermine School Of Art

NEW CANAAN, CT - From the Silvermine Arts Center: The Patricia Warfield Jinishian Scholarship Fund, named for a beloved artist who had a long and distinguished career at Silvermine, has been established at the Silvermine School of Art. A scholarship has been awarded to the first recipient for the Fall 2017 semester. The fund was created by the artist’s husband, Gallerist J. Russell Jinishian, and her children, Tobey and Kai, with memorial donations made in her honor after her death in 2016. This generous donation, totaling $35,000, will provide funding on an ongoing basis for deserving students at the Silvermine School of Art.

“We started the Patricia Warfield Jinishian Memorial Scholarship Fund with the help of many friends and former students to make it possible for other young people to enter into the wonderful world of art and enjoy the pleasures it can offer throughout their lives, just as my wife was helped as a young artist,” said Russell Jinishian. Russell has his own strong ties to Silvermine, having served as Gallery Assistant and Program Coordinator in the late 1970s.

“The School of Art is grateful to Patricia’s family for this lasting and meaningful memorial gift,” said Anne Connell, Director of the Silvermine School of Art. “The new scholarship fund will help talented young artists deepen their training in the arts.”

Patricia Warfield Jinishian was for many years an instructor of Painting, Drawing, Printmaking, and Ceramics at the Silvermine School of Art. She was born in St. Louis but moved to New Canaan at the age of five where she showed an early talent for, and interest in art. At the age of 17 she began attending the then Silvermine College of Art, with a full scholarship. After she graduated, she stayed for twenty years teaching everything from figure drawing and painting to printmaking and pottery. She helped inspire many adults and children to develop and pursue their interest in art.

Throughout her life, Jinishian was also an active exhibiting professional artist working in nearly every media—from miniature prints to large sculptures— and often developing new techniques and approaches. During the early ‘80s, she opened her own school—the Warfield Art Workshop—in Stonington, CT. She taught both at the Silvermine School of Art and at the Wooster Art Center in Danbury, CT. She was member of the National Arts Club.

Ms. Warfield was affiliated with galleries including the Anguilla Gallery, Stonington, CT; Galleria de Bellardo, New York, NY; J. Russell Jinishian Gallery in Fairfield, CT; North Truro Art Gallery; Private Collector’s Gallery, Cork, Ireland; Sailor’s Valentine Gallery, Nantucket, MA; Silvermine Guild of Artists; Stoneledge Gallery, Noank, CT; Art Place, Westport, CT; and the Westport Art Center, Westport, CT. Her work was exhibited widely in New York and New England, including at the Mystic Art Association, the Old Lyme Academy of Art, Greenwich Audubon Society, the Union League Club in New York City, and the New York Yacht Club. She participated in twenty Annual ‘Art of the Northeast’ Exhibitions. Her large-scale projects included a 27’ long Pastel Mural of a Western Rodeo (now installed at the Holland Hotel in Alpine, Texas) and several Macramé Raven sculptures.

Image via Silvermine School of Art; Silvermine Art Center