Patricia Swannell

%1

born 1952, Toronto, Canada

EDUCATION
2009City and Guilds of London Art School (MA Fine Art Painting)
2006 City and Guilds of London Art School (BA (Hons) Fine Art Painting)
2003 Kensington and Chelsea College (BTEC Fine Arts)
1977 University of Toronto (MA Economics)
1976 University of Toronto (BA (Hons) Economics)

EXHIBITIONS
Marking Time, jaggedart, London (2011)
Small is Beautiful, Flowers East, London (2010)
Fall – The Secret Life of Trees, jaggedart, London (2009)
MA Show, City and Guilds of London Art School (2009)
Without my journey and without the Spring, I would have missed this dawn”, jaggedart, London
Flowers From and Unknown Tree, jaggedart (March 2007)
Degree Show, City and Guilds of London Art School (June 2006)
Bless our Cotton Socks, St. Anselm’s Church, Kennington (June 2005)
Bang, Trinity Buoy Wharf (June 2004)

AWARDS
The Painter-Stainers’ Company Award to a Final Year Student (June 2006)
The City and Guilds Prize for Best Contributor to the Humanities Programme (June 2006)
The City and Guilds Printmaking Prize for Technical Excellence (June 2006)
The City and Guilds Printmaking Prize for Technical Excellence (June 2005)

Shortlisted for the DLA Piper Art Award 2006

OTHER WORK EXPERIENCE
1978-1986 Investment Banker - Orion Bank Limited, Chase Manhattan Bank.
1986-1998 Financial Training -Chase Manhattan Bank, Robert Fleming and other major banks.
1998-2003 Writing Distance Learning and Multimedia Training Material - Open University, School of Management Studies and Wide Learning Limited.

STATEMENT

I am haunted by the current threat to the natural world and the self-destructive illusion that our own fate could somehow be different from the fate of the environment we inhabit.

My work seeks to prompt a new awareness by directing attention away from mass consumption towards the beauty of what lies, often literally, beneath our feet. The fragility and transience of simple fragments – seeds, seedpods, grasses, feathers – call for protection and offer the possibility of a different future through an altered system of values.

Image, text and metaphor, both linguistic and material, are called into service to prompt this re-valuation. My practice includes drawing, painting, installation and 3-dimensional work, but I am particularly drawn to printmaking which allows indexical and multiple images of the fragments, qualities which are so fitting for my current project.

March 2009