Patricia McParlin, is a British artist who lives and works in Wales. She studied at The University of Wales and The West Wales School of the Arts. She is primarily a painter, but as a musician, writer and theatre practitioner, her work is cross-disciplinary, encompassing film, installation, sculpture and performance art.


Artist Statement
I am interested in the power art has to transgress boundaries. It can be in, (at least), two places at once; inner and outer, real and imagined, present and past. It offers the possibility of an immediate synthesis of thought and emotion, of a psychological and a ?felt? space, blurring imposed divisions between what is seen and imagined, observed and remembered. An expression that can be both literal and metaphorical in the same instant.

I partly see my art work as a form of visual poetic, or static music?. ?there is the same impulse to transform?to harmonise discords? ?to walk the line in-between beauty and brutality?the bitter sweet?

I have worked in many art forms, including video, installation, sculpture, ceramics, writing, theatre and music. All of these inform my work, but painting has recently been my major focus.

I am currently concerned with the physicality of painting; colour, form, space, texture and the resonances that can arise from the alchemy of a response to materials.


Education

B.A.(Hons) 2:1/1st English/Education, U.C.C. Cardiff 1982

P.G.C.E. English/Art/Drama, U.C.C. Cardiff 1986

B.A.(Hons) 2:1 Fine Art Painting, C.C.T.A. 2003

M.A.(Year 1) Swansea Institute 2005


Awards

?Welsh Artist of the Year?, student award 2001


Selected Exhibitions
Off the Wall Gallery, Connecting Girls, Inspiring Futures, 2012
Oriel Q Gallery, selected Winter Show, 2011
Art at rhos y gilwen, Pembrokeshire, 2010
Women?s Work, Off the Wall Gallery, Cardiff, 2010
Art at rhos y gilwen, Pembrokeshire, 2008
Blood Relative,Paintworks, Bristol, 2007
Welsh Artist of the Year, St David?s Hall, Cardiff, 2000,2001,2003,2007
Fresh Art, London, 2003
The National Eisteddfod of Wales, 2002
R.K.Burt Gallery, London, 2002
Art West, Carmarthen, 2002
Fairy Hill Sculpture Park, Swansea, 2002
Fifteen Individuals, Queens Hall, Narberth, 2000


Brief History
Born near Cardiff, I have always practiced as an artist, exhibiting and selling work since the early 1990?s. My first degree was in English Literature, and following my post-graduate qualification, I taught English, Art and Drama in London for several years. I have also worked with art as a theraputic medium in various settings.

I completed my formal art training relatively recently, graduating in 2003. I have exhibited in many shows, both in London and Wales, winning The Welsh Artist of the Year, (student award), in 2001 and being selected for The National Eisteddfod in 2002. Currently, I continue to make work, exhibit and develop my practice across the arts.