Patricia Smart

Patricia Smart is a diverse artist in style, subject and medium. She draws inspiration from nature, science, and whimsy. She was formally trained in Fine arts at Meadowbank TAFE and Visual Arts at Sydney College of the Arts. Her studio practice includes painting, printmaking, and most recently ceramics. Patricia represented Australia in China in 2017 where she painted a mural alongside 90 other international artists. She has twice been a finalist in the Woollahra small sculpture prize, the Environmental art and design prize 2022 and is a finalist in the National capital art prize 2022. She has worked in the printmaking collection at the Art Gallery of NSW and The National Gallery of Australia and won The National Emerging Art Prize (Ceramics) in 2021.

The Australian bush and marine environments have a unique rawness. The harsh spikes and prickly banksias of the bush, for me, are its beauty. My vessels are sculptural. Built with armature of slabs and slurry. Each element formed by hand. They are the base for my expression of the nature of Australia. Honest in their making they reveal the process of their creation. Asymmetry is important to convey the untamed nature of the environments they represent. My ideas come to me usually at night when I wake to sketch them before they disappear. They are born from walks at my home in the Blue Mountains, and beach combing and snorkelling in Booderee national park where I have spent many happy summers. I rely on memory when making my work as I reflect on the smells, sounds and touch of these distinctive places to convey the essence of them in form. Conservation of the environment is important to me and the creatures are a morphing of flora and fauna. A representation of biodiversity in one form.