PRESS RELEASE
15/1/2015
EMILY PATRICK 2015
SOLO EXHIBITION 10-27 MARCH
Leading British figurative painter Emily Patrick, will hold a solo exhibition at 8 Duke Street, St.
James’s between the 10th and 27th of March. This independent exhibition will bring together
a carefully-considered body of new work, comprised of over fifty paintings in oil on panel,
produced over the last two years. Patrick’s style is unlike that of her contemporaries; it is that
of a “21st century intimiste”, and is at once “intellectually and emotionally fulfilling” – Jackie
Wullschlager, The Financial Times.
Known for captivating still life and landscape paintings, Patrick’s forte is to bring refreshing
resonance to subjects which have engaged artists for centuries. It is deeply rooted in time and
place. Working from her South London studio, she responds to her immediate environment,
whether by immersing herself in the seasonal rhythms of Greenwich Park or delighting in the
idiosyncratic layers of domestic life.
In Patrick’s work, the unnoticed intimacy of a detail becomes a lasting and permanent subject,
a transient moment to which we are invited to return, to relish and protect. In Young Beech
on Horizon we see the depth of Patrick’s engagement with nature. The shifting moods of the
brushwork, from specific to blur, reveal both the fragility of what we observe and, at the same
time, its endurance. These painterly gestures are gracefully poised between patience and urgency,
substance and erosion, presence and absence. Meanwhile, one bold earthy mark in Movement
in Still Landscape dynamically enlivens the composition, and enables a series of ambivalent
dialogues to play out on the painting’s surface. And in Leaves and Vuillard, fragmented thoughts
intertwine, emerge and recede, like its flowers and leaves, to form a mesmerizingly textured
whole. Patrick’s paintings are “Infused with delicate light and tranquility, these still lifes, portraits
and landscapes reveal the meditative focus of a virtuoso painter” – Rachel Campbell-Johnston,
The Times.
Patrick rarely exhibits her work and this exhibition is an important opportunity to see a diverse
and resonant series which, in its distinctive vision, offers a notable alternative to conceptual
trends. She believes that “painting is an opportunity to offer people a different energy”.
A preview of the exhibition can be seen online at http://www.emilypatrick.com/show.php
EMILY PATRICK 2015
BIOGRAPHY
Emily Patrick grew up on an isolated sheep farm in East Kent. She considers those fields and
woods to have been her first art teachers and attributes her appreciation of craftsmanship to
the days spent working in her father’s furniture-making and antique shop in Folkestone. At the
same time, and as a young teenager, Patrick visited most major European art galleries – for her,
this was formal training. She did not attend art school but studied architecture at Cambridge
University (1979-1982).
On holiday in Canada in 1981, while drawing horticulturalist Frank Cabot, she discovered
her vocation and declared to her family that she wished to become a portrait painter. Early
commissions included Dr John Casey and Lord Cottesloe. Branching into still-life painting, she
had her first solo show with Sarah Long (1984) and this was followed by five shows with Thomas
Agnew between 1986 and 1995. Since 1995, Patrick has exhibited independently, with exhibitions
held every two to three years.
Her exhibitions are curated by her husband, Michael Perry, who also collaborates with the making
of their unusual frames. When not working outside, she works in a studio beside Greenwich
Park, London. They have three children.
CONTACT
For high resolution images, a copy of the
catalogue or to arrange a visit to the studio:
Michael Perry michael@emilypatrick.com
020 8858 0427
07785 307113
Emily Patrick mail@emilypatrick.com
DETAILS OF EXHIBITION
Gallery 8
8 Duke Street St. James’s
London
SW1Y 6BN
Dates 10th – 27th March 2015
Daily 10am until 6pm
Sundays 12 noon until 4pm