
After 41 years of service in the court system, Ed Patten of Hazlehurst traded his judicial robe for a paint brush, retiring as 20-year chancellor of the 15th Chancery District covering Copiah and Lincoln Counties to become an accomplished watercolorist.
Born in South Carolina, he settled with his family in Dexter, Mississippi, in Walthall County after his father retired from the military, earned a degree in pharmacy from the University of Mississippi in 1975 following studies at Pearl River Community College, and graduated from law school in 1977 after deciding he didn’t want to be a pharmacist after all. He came with his wife Jacqui to Hazlehurst in 1978, where he joined the Armstrong and Hoffman law firm and was elected to the 15th Chancery District in 1998 where he still handles mediations and has senior status judging as a painter in his retirement.
Fellow artist and Chancellor John Grant in Rankin County, a talented oil painter himself, sparked Patten’s interest in painting when he showed him some of his works, and his sister encouraged him to study botanical drawing and watercolor adult enrichment classes at Millsaps College to give him something to do while recovering from knee replacement surgery. Although starting to paint at square one with no idea about what he was doing, he found he had a knack for it and has continued to turn to it as an escape from other concerns, fully immersing himself in the art and the planning and thinking required.
Patten prefers watercolors because of the way they flow and not having complete control of the outcome. His subjects include people and animals, especially birds. He won first and third places in watercolor in a Brookhaven Regional Arts Guild competition a few years ago, and has painted hundreds of works, including countless commissioned pieces, and others he has donated to charities.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The 2023 Copiah County Bicentennial year has ended, but Wesson News continues to feature sketches of past and present visual artists, musicians, authors and photographers who are natives of the county excerpted from Tricia Nelson’s reporting in A Shared History: Copiah County, Mississippi 1823-2023 edited and compiled by Paul C. Cartwright and available through Cartwright for $25 plus $5 for shipping at 3 Waverly Circle, Hattiesburg, MS 39402. Nelson is a Crystal Springs writer who contributes to the Copiah County Monitor.
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