1920s

In 1923 one of her paintings was accepted by the Norfolk Society of Arts. Also, in that year her painting entitled "Fishermen's Homes" was accepted for the Biennial Exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.. The review of that exhibition in the December 29, 1923 Art News noted "Fishermen's Homes" for its novelty of handling as well as color, making it "one of the outstanding pictures at the Corcoran show." The same painting was shown at the Carnegie Institute in 1925, where, again, it was noted favorably by the Pittsburgh Post. During the 1920s she also displayed works at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. However, she did not show any paintings in the Provincetown Art Association exhibits again until 1929.


1930s

The 1930s were Willis' most active years in Provincetown. Her paintings were included in the Art Association's exhibits in 1930, 1935, 1937 and 1938. Her name was included on the list of juries for the modern shows of the Association in the mid-1930s, evidence of her esteem among her artist peers. Her two paintings in the 1936 show received favorable mention from Edward Alden Jones, art critic of the New York Times, who wrote, "I thought Patty Willis's pair of abstractions 'Cup' and 'Tree' charmingly and whimsically inventive." In his review of the 1937 exhibition, Jones chided several of the "Moderns" for their increasingly staid approach, but complemented Willis for her painting "Rhythm of Life on the Water." A regional show receiving national attention during the 1930s was the Cumberland Valley Exhibition, held annually at the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts in Hagerstown, Maryland. Willis won first prize at the Exhibition in 1935 for her lithograph "Weather Cock." She again won first prize in 1939 for her oil painting "Under Breezy Nets." In 1937 Willis also exhibited with the Society of International Artists at the Grand Central Palace in New York and won the attention of Alfred R. Barr of the Museum of Modern Art. In 1939 Willis was notified by Thomas C. Colt, Director of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, that one of her paintings had been accepted for display at the art exhibition at the New York World's Fair. She also exhibited in Norfolk and Richmond in that year. Willis completed several works for the Works Progress Administration (WPA) during the 1930s, including two murals in the entrance hall of the Charles Town High School. Many local school children contributed ideas for the murals. The two panels, which depicted scenes around Jefferson County, were entitled "Cultivation: Wheels of Science and Progress" and "Nature and Recreation." Unfortunately, both murals were later painted over. But the old high school building on Congress Street remains in use as the Wright Denny Elementary School. Black and white photographs of both murals have been preserved indicating their location in the building. As part of another WPA project, Willis designed a mural for the U.S. Post Office in nearby Hagerstown, Maryland.


1940s

Willis last exhibited in the Provincetown Art Association show in 1940. In the 1940s she had several one-woman shows, including one at the Charleston (West Virginia) Art Gallery. She also contributed her skills to the war effort. In 1942 she designed a poster called "From Scrap Metal to Victory." She did a painting for the local chapter of the Red Cross in Jefferson County depicting their work during the war. Willis remained mostly at the home she shared with her sister Eliza in Charles Town during the 1940s, traveling frequently to Wytheville, Virginia, to visit the children and grandchildren of her sister Eleanor Love Pendleton. (Eleanor had died in 1908, leaving six young children. Patty, Eliza and the other siblings did their best to help fill the loss from afar.) A brother, Thomas Hite Willis, who had become a successful real estate investor in Hinsdale, Illinois, had bought a farm called Belvedere on the eastern edge of Charles Town facing the Blue Ridge Mountains. He returned there with his family for the summers. Most of her paintings during these years depicted scenes around Charles Town and Wytheville, including many at Belvedere, then a pleasant walk across open fields from her house on Mildred Street. Willis did not drive and depended on her sister Eliza to take her to spots around the county to paint. She painted portraits of her many grand-nieces and nephews, to whom she was devoted and by whom she was beloved. She also taught art classes in Charles Town for local students. In the summer of 1948 she drove from Washington, D.C. to Cape Cod with her nephew John A. Washington and his family. While they vacationed nearby, she paid her last visit to Provincetown, staying two weeks. In the last years of her life she did most of her painting in her studio in the upstairs of her house in Charles Town. Patty Willis died of heart failure in Charles Town on November 21, 1953. She was 74. She is buried in the Zion Episcopal Church Yard, a few blocks down the street from her home on Mildred Street. Buried among the surrounding graves are 75 members of the Washington family. Some years after her death, Willis' nephew, Walter Washington, who had grown up in the house next door to her, wrote of his aunt, "Although she found some of her best subjects in Northeastern fishing villages, it was the scenery and activities of her native smiling countryside that delighted her most."

(This account of Patty Willis' career is taken, in large part, from an article written by Mary Master which appeared in the June 12, 1986 issue of the Spirit of Jefferson Farmers Advocate in conjunction with an exhibit of Willis' paintings assembled as part of the Charles Town Bicentennial Celebration. Additional information was taken from Art in Narrow Streets, by Ross Moffet, 1989)