Emily Patrick | Recent Paintings
"This work's purpose is to celebrate the beauty in the world that we may sometimes forget. I hope that here you will find strength, joy and serenity."
The collection is rooted in traditional European culture, with views of Winchester and Cambridge, of a mother and her newborn baby. These are viewed with a tenderness and a freshness, an echo of Mary Cassatt. She brings similar grace to a makeshift washing-line, an empty tent or a wiggly gate lost in a landscape. Patrick's world is full of delight which she wishes us to feel too.
The paintings take one inside the artist's home in Greenwich. Timeless Georgian windows often appear, the source of the joyous light that frequently radiates out of the paintings. The still-lifes, while apparently indoors, often seem to be at the same time outside, with the sky above them. Patrick can share the beauty of rubber bands around a bunch of asparagus, a door handle or a washbasin.
Most of all the exhibition is a floral feast. A flowering hyacinth bulb, great bouquets of lilac and fiery red tulips, candles of horse chestnut, tumbling yellow roses, cytisus with foxgloves, daffodils and tulips. Patrick's arrangements always appear spontaneous. Outside, the character of a plant's position in the garden is more important. Foxgloves reach skyward, crocuses are lost in a lawn.
Beyond the composition, the quality of the craftsmanship stands out. So much of the magic is created by the handling of the paint, which can be tender, excited, bold, layered, translucent, and is always worthy of close study. She paints with a speed that means many of the subjects still feel full of movement and freshness.
The frames, some in ebony, walnut or London plane, others gessoed and gilded with later layers of coloured wax, reflect the variety and craftsmanship in the paintings. They have been made by Patrick together with her husband and their son.
