Opaline Glass and Blackberries
An ecstacy of light and air
Country Life October 4th by Emma Crichton-Miller
Exhibition Emily Patrick at Duke Street, St James's, London
Emily … is known for her sensitive portraits and delicate still lifes of simple domestic scenes that she conjures into compelling liveliness with her brushwork and strongly pigmented oil or egg tempera paints. A third primary thread in her work is landscape. These paintings encompass fields full of wild flowers tossing beneath blustery skies; corners of sunlit woodland; a stand of brambles; a cabbage patch in Portgual's Alentejo; a view across gardens to urban roof tops; a magnolia tree swaying; and even a view of Deptford Creek, all white-capped brown water, swirling seagulls and exuberant buddleia bursting from old bricks.
Rather than the sublime, what Emily captures is the joyfulness of the quotidian and the bursting energy of the natural world, whether expressed through a jug of garden flowers on a kitchen table or a sweeping view of mountains.
Critic's Choice
The Financial Times Saturday October 7th by Jackie Wullschlager
Emily Patrick, Gallery 8, London
A painter of quietude, slow time, domestic delight. Patrick is skilled at bringing the natural world into the studio in still lifes of textural vibrancy and satisfying architectonic composition: nuanced contrasts between pale petals and wrappers in “Amaretti Magnolia”; translucency versus freshness in “Opaline Glass and Blackberries”; fruit segments, peel and a Penguin paperback in harmony in “Tangerines and Voss”; and uncontrolled bouquets spiralling against cool Regency panelling in “Sunflowers and Lemons”.