Patricia Swannell | A commemorative exhibition
open 12 September - 11 October 2024
jaggedart is honoured to showcase the wide breadth of Patricia Swannell’s artistic career in this memorial show.
Patricia Swannell worked 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 collected 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 transformed flotsam and jetsam into works of beauty and resonance.
Her focus on environmental matters was also reflected in her work for The Royal Botanic Garden Kew at Wakehurst Place. She 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.
Patricia Swannell’s work started 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 looked 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.
Her prints, meticulously crafted using real clippings from local gardens such as St James Park, Kew, and Cleaver Square, capture the essence of plant life. Her monochromatic works retain incredible detail of the source plant. The smallest intricacies of leaves and petals are frozen in time by Patricia’s attention to detail. In her Colour Notes series, she amplified these monochrome prints with sections of hand painted colour. Using an incredibly fine brush, Patricia painted in thin strokes to create hyper-realistic leaves, grasses, and flowers.
In Patricia’s Tree Ring series, she explored the identity of local environments. At the heart of each drawing lies a tiny tree seed. Spiralling out in concentric rings, mirroring the cross section of a tree trunk, Patricia wrote repetitions of the English and Latin names of the tree. Of particular interest in this series was the Silver Maple, Black Locust, and Golden Rain trees. Written in such fine text, the words merge together to form a unified shape when viewed from afar. Only on close viewing can you read the details of each text.
Selections of Patricia’s prints and tree drawings will cover the walls of the gallery, showing the incredible scope of her work. Displayed among these larger series will be a selection of Patricia’s more experimental works. From vibrant feather prints to hand-embroidered haikus, each work tells a story of Patricia’s practice and journey.
During the last year of Patricia's life, she worked tirelessly with Breast Cancer Now to fund research into secondary breast cancer and to support healthcare professionals. Throughout this exhibition, jaggedart will continue to donate to and support the Patricia Swannell Appeal. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to Patricia’s appeal. More information on the Appeal can be found on the Breast Cancer Now website.