Emily Patrick: Recent Paintings

Emily Patrick will hold a solo exhibition at 8 Duke Street, St. James's between the 10th and 28th of October. This independent show will contain over fifty paintings in oil on panel, produced over the past two years; landscapes, still-lifes and portraits.

Patrick has been painting for over 35 years. Her most recent work is distinctly layered, rewarding ever-closer inspection and revealing a world that we would like to inhabit and one where more stories are to be found. Quiet and beautiful, the paintings have a rarely-seen tenderness and sensitivity.

Her subjects are closely related to life in and around her home in Greenwich and also evoke the sights of a childhood in the countryside. We see children playing at Docklands City Farm, clowns exploring a garden, Deptford Creek near its union with the River Thames. There is a commanding view of the heart of a plane tree from Greenwich Park alongside studies of radishes, turnips and fruit.

Two paintings depict the recent productions of Farinelli and the King at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse and the Duke of York's Theatre. Also included in the exhibition will be a portrait of Sir Jonathan Bate, Master of Worcester College, Oxford. His biographies of John Clare and Ted Hughes inspired Patrick to place his figure in a lyrical view of the college gardens.

She describes herself as 'turning to see the good, the positive, the beautiful” and sees her work as offering peace, dedicating it to those people who 'look with kindness”. These are unusual priorities in the art world.