Patricia Swannell

Patricia Swannell

Patricia Swannell works predominantly with print, as well as creating fluid large scale abstract watercolours. Her works are inspired by the beauty of nature and the dark threats to the natural world. Patricia collects willow branches and leaves, ferns and grasses. These natural materials are used on the printing press so that the paper becomes embossed with their shapes and textures. From large trees, to tiny seeds and fragile grasses, Patricia’s transforms flotsam and jetsom into works of beauty and resonance.

Her focus on environmental matters is also reflected in her work for The Royal Botanic Garden Kew at Wakehurst Place. She has designed a brick and turf maze and a series of small bronzes, which highlight the conservation work of Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank for visitors to the garden.

Her photography and print project Legacy; A Reciprocal Tribute, at the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Wood, Leicestershire will record the growth of the woodland by photographing one family, in the same place with the background of the growing woodland, every year, over the next six decades. continues Patricia’s ongoing preoccupation and interest in nature and the effects we have on it.

Patricia Swannell’s works start from the idea of time, with the ever-moving present providing the only vantage point to the past and future. Through paintings, drawings and prints, paying attention to the particular expression that each medium allows, she looks closely at the commonplace. The works focus on moments of exquisite balance and beauty in nature that are receding from experience to memory, perhaps forever.

Canadian born, Patricia lives and works in London. She completed an MA in Fine Art at City and Guilds with Distinction.

For more information about Patricia's inspiration and process click on the following link:
https://mailchi.mp/3dfddd4a4b65/jaggedartcom-3180245

A film commissioned by the Woodland Trust about her ongoing project Legacy at at the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Wood, can be watched here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KD9dFRY8Z-0