Throughout her six-decade career, Camille Patha's painting has oscillated between the figurative and the abstract. Patha began painting gestural abstraction in the 1960s then deliberately explored various painting styles, including hard-edged abstraction and surrealist-infused photorealism and, finally, a return to abstraction. During each era of her career, Patha demonstrated a full mastery of painting, presenting canvases that wholly embody her imagery and vocabulary with an unwavering voice and shocking vigor. Patha asserts her power as a painter by creating imagery of a complete universe that enables the viewer to be fully absorbed within a boundless volume. In her paintings, she shares a sense of wonder about the existential conundrums confronting every person and with the exuberance of her elastic symbolism. <i>A Punch of Color</i> is the first retrospective of her work since 1979. <p><b>Rock Hushka</b> is curator of contemporary and Northwest art and director of curatorial administration at Tacoma Art Museum.