“As a child living in The Hampshire Downs in England, I looked at the hills, and they always reminded me of people’s bodies. My maternal grandfather and my mother were both artists and I have clear early childhood memories of how they inspired me to look beyond the object. My grandfather would take chalk pieces from the nearby chalk pits and we drew on the asphalt. At home, my mother encouraged me to see beauty in the shiny black contours and the wonderful shapes of coal. She called them black diamonds.”

Pat immigrated to New Zealand in 1957, married and had four daughters. As the girls grew, Pat studied art, form and colour at the Otago Polytechnic, the Workers’ Educational Association (WEA) and Correspondence School. She was also active in the vibrant Dunedin theatre scene. Visual and performing arts – two themes where colour and light are enhanced and reality is suspended for a moment.

The family moved to Tāmaki Makaurau, and throughout the 1980’s and 90’s, Pat continued art classes at The Fisher Gallery, the Auckland Society of Arts (ASA) and the University of Auckland. Her tutors were often inspirational, many were to become well-known New Zealand artists: for example Dame Louise Henderson, Rodney Fumpston and Nigel Brown.
Pat became a tutor herself. Her focus for many years was print-making – intaglio and etching, and she taught screen printing at Uxbridge. She completed her BA double majoring in Art History and English at The University of Auckland in 2001 and became an ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) tutor.

Pat has exhibited her work throughout New Zealand in various group and solo exhibitions. Her current exhibition, Visual Diary of an Astral Traveller, at Uxbridge (8th Nov – 17th Jan 2025) invites the spectator on a metaphysical journey of the creative process.

Ten years ago, Pat experienced age-related Macular Degeneration – a gradual loss of her central vision, which has significantly reduced her ability to sense the depth of colour and detail in the real world. She finds though, that visual decline is not mirrored in the dream world – that images are clear and colourful. Pat remembers colours and is able to draw on her knowledge. Pat demonstrates how art – the artist – can continue to develop ideas despite obstacles such as sight impairment and age.