To Patricia Gwilliam Ziegler painting is her lifelong personal journal, a visual expression of her relationships and experiences, interpretations of memories that linger in her heart beyond words. Family, parenting, marriage, as well as the simple moments of every day are her inspirations. To Ziegler the act of painting is like vivid dreaming. She starts with a color or a vague memory and follows her brush as it reveals the image, developing into an enchanted vision with a life of its own.

After majoring in art at UCSB, she returned to the Bay Area to study under the mentorship of Joan Brown. These years reinforced her fascination with personal figurative imagery, pattern, and color.