Patrick Francis, 22 years, is an enthusiastic, emerging Australian artist and athlete, from a culturally and linguistically diverse background, who is autistic with an intellectual disability. He studied at Brunswick Special Developmental School where he first participated in art competitions and exhibitions in 2005, and is presently working part-time, since leaving school in 2009, at the following places :
-Arts Project Australia
-Absolutely Awetistic Arts
-Artful Dodgers Studio
-Footscray Community Arts Centre
Patrick Francis’ paintings explore aspects of his personal experience, resulting in distilled images that represent various portraits and still-life. Often utilising acrylic on paper/canvas as his chosen medium, Francis uses bold colour as an expressive tool, focusing his and the viewers' attention on key elements in his paintings whether they be portraits of his idols or drawing from life, as well as using source material taken from magazines and fine art publications. This process has allowed him to successfully develop his sensitive line, composition and application of colour, resulting in highly considered and refined drawings.
Despite inadequate communication, Patrick strives to expresses himself through his impressive paintings which he has exhibited in Australian and overseas galleries winning several awards, featured online and in news articles frequently.
Compelled by famous and infamous historical and celebrity icons, Patrick Francis paints a variety of subjects including portraiture and still life. Transforming Little Woods Gallery into a strange pop-culture vortex, the walls are covered with images of Nicki Minaj, Kylie Minogue, Blondie, Robbie Williams and Madonna – all wide eyed and often with gaping mouths. A range of big cats are also presented here using vivid blocks of blended matte and metallic colours.
Parick Francis’s work can currently be seen as part of Melbourne Now at the NGV, and he has been invited to show as part of Australia’s premiere art event – the 2014 Sydney Biennale. In 2012, Patrick Francis also won the prestigious Art & Australia Contemporary Art Award.
Patrick Francis is a Melbourne-based artist who has been working as a participant at Artful Dodgers Studios in the music and art studios, and is an artist at Arts Project Australia, Footscray Community Arts and Absolutely Awetistic Arts.
Patrick Francis
Posted on April 15, 2014 by Christiane Keys-Statham
http://buriedatsea.org/2014/04/15/patrick-francis-safari-2014/
Patrick Francis is a prolific and successful painter, with a strong style and highly confident approach. His form of portrait painting employs methods used in times long past: a directorial approach in the studio, the deconstruction of the subject, bold and expressive use of colour, and an extreme simplification of the pictorial plane.
Francis’ use of colour recalls the intensity of modernist movements such as Fauvism and German Expressionism: stripping back an image to its main components, Francis directs studio assistants to select the exact colour required for each section, adding these to more detailed under-drawings. This selective process indicates that the artist places great importance on colour, its emotive value and the power it holds within the image itself. For Francis, colour is loaded with meaning: it holds the key to the characters he paints, conveying their state of mind, their roles and their situation to the viewer. Form and contours are flattened, becoming bright planes of colour. However, subtleties also exist in the edges of these colour blocks, gentle gradations giving way to sudden changes that catch the eye and hint at the hidden depths of perspective and detail within the layers of paint.
Patrick Francis places just as much importance in the selection of his subjects as in the selection of colour used to create them. His source material is found images of art history classics, pop culture and film icons, and other mass media material. Francis also draws from facets of his daily life in Melbourne, and his sporting and community interests.
For SafARI 2014, the works selected by the curators are based on art historical source material, and include portraits of Bette Davis as Queen Elizabeth, the Mona Lisa, Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring and a head from a Ned Kelly painting by Sidney Nolan. The jolt of recognition experienced by the viewer when coming across one of these paintings is quickly replaced by astonishment that the artist could capture the essence of such famous images with his deceptively reductive style. Francis’ deconstruction of the portrait is a way of seeking out the emotional truth of the subject: a search that distils the portrait into a purer form of representation, a portrait cleansed of its social and political implications. In Francis’work, the individual’s essence shines through; engaging the viewer long after the initial shock of identification has passed.
Francis is a Melbourne-based artist who has been working with Arts Project Australia since 2009. His work received the Art & Australia / Credit Suisse Private Banking Contemporary Art Award in 2012, and has been shown in exhibitions nationally including at Arts Project Australia in Melbourne, Sheffer Gallery in Sydney, Tanks Art Centre in Cairns, and at the 2012 Melbourne Art Fair. In 2013, he was selected to participate in Melbourne Now at the National Gallery of Victoria. His work is also held in a number of private collections nationally.
See books for sale at :
http://www.amazon.com/Bird-Tales-Lesley-Francis/dp/1481058193
http://www.amazon.com/Athlete-Artist-Lesley-P-Francis/dp/1478191406
http://www.amazon.com/Absolutely-Awetistic-Arts-Lesley-Francis/dp/1478211776
http://www.amazon.com/Arts-Project-Adventures-Lesley-Francis/dp/1482644673
http://www.amazon.com/Poetic-Paintings-Volume-Lesley-Francis/dp/1478108436
See artwork for sale at :
http://absolutelyawetisticards.weebly.com/55x80cm-paper.html
http://absolutelyawetisticards.weebly.com/35x50cm-paper.html
http://absolutelyawetisticards.weebly.com/40x40cm-canvas.html
http://absolutelyawetisticards.weebly.com/60x60cm-canvas.html
http://absolutelyawetisticards.weebly.com/60x90cm-canvas.html
http://absolutelyawetisticards.weebly.com/80x80cm-canvas.html
Email : [email protected]
-Arts Project Australia
-Absolutely Awetistic Arts
-Artful Dodgers Studio
-Footscray Community Arts Centre
Patrick Francis’ paintings explore aspects of his personal experience, resulting in distilled images that represent various portraits and still-life. Often utilising acrylic on paper/canvas as his chosen medium, Francis uses bold colour as an expressive tool, focusing his and the viewers' attention on key elements in his paintings whether they be portraits of his idols or drawing from life, as well as using source material taken from magazines and fine art publications. This process has allowed him to successfully develop his sensitive line, composition and application of colour, resulting in highly considered and refined drawings.
Despite inadequate communication, Patrick strives to expresses himself through his impressive paintings which he has exhibited in Australian and overseas galleries winning several awards, featured online and in news articles frequently.
Compelled by famous and infamous historical and celebrity icons, Patrick Francis paints a variety of subjects including portraiture and still life. Transforming Little Woods Gallery into a strange pop-culture vortex, the walls are covered with images of Nicki Minaj, Kylie Minogue, Blondie, Robbie Williams and Madonna – all wide eyed and often with gaping mouths. A range of big cats are also presented here using vivid blocks of blended matte and metallic colours.
Parick Francis’s work can currently be seen as part of Melbourne Now at the NGV, and he has been invited to show as part of Australia’s premiere art event – the 2014 Sydney Biennale. In 2012, Patrick Francis also won the prestigious Art & Australia Contemporary Art Award.
Patrick Francis is a Melbourne-based artist who has been working as a participant at Artful Dodgers Studios in the music and art studios, and is an artist at Arts Project Australia, Footscray Community Arts and Absolutely Awetistic Arts.
Patrick Francis
Posted on April 15, 2014 by Christiane Keys-Statham
http://buriedatsea.org/2014/04/15/patrick-francis-safari-2014/
Patrick Francis is a prolific and successful painter, with a strong style and highly confident approach. His form of portrait painting employs methods used in times long past: a directorial approach in the studio, the deconstruction of the subject, bold and expressive use of colour, and an extreme simplification of the pictorial plane.
Francis’ use of colour recalls the intensity of modernist movements such as Fauvism and German Expressionism: stripping back an image to its main components, Francis directs studio assistants to select the exact colour required for each section, adding these to more detailed under-drawings. This selective process indicates that the artist places great importance on colour, its emotive value and the power it holds within the image itself. For Francis, colour is loaded with meaning: it holds the key to the characters he paints, conveying their state of mind, their roles and their situation to the viewer. Form and contours are flattened, becoming bright planes of colour. However, subtleties also exist in the edges of these colour blocks, gentle gradations giving way to sudden changes that catch the eye and hint at the hidden depths of perspective and detail within the layers of paint.
Patrick Francis places just as much importance in the selection of his subjects as in the selection of colour used to create them. His source material is found images of art history classics, pop culture and film icons, and other mass media material. Francis also draws from facets of his daily life in Melbourne, and his sporting and community interests.
For SafARI 2014, the works selected by the curators are based on art historical source material, and include portraits of Bette Davis as Queen Elizabeth, the Mona Lisa, Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring and a head from a Ned Kelly painting by Sidney Nolan. The jolt of recognition experienced by the viewer when coming across one of these paintings is quickly replaced by astonishment that the artist could capture the essence of such famous images with his deceptively reductive style. Francis’ deconstruction of the portrait is a way of seeking out the emotional truth of the subject: a search that distils the portrait into a purer form of representation, a portrait cleansed of its social and political implications. In Francis’work, the individual’s essence shines through; engaging the viewer long after the initial shock of identification has passed.
Francis is a Melbourne-based artist who has been working with Arts Project Australia since 2009. His work received the Art & Australia / Credit Suisse Private Banking Contemporary Art Award in 2012, and has been shown in exhibitions nationally including at Arts Project Australia in Melbourne, Sheffer Gallery in Sydney, Tanks Art Centre in Cairns, and at the 2012 Melbourne Art Fair. In 2013, he was selected to participate in Melbourne Now at the National Gallery of Victoria. His work is also held in a number of private collections nationally.
See books for sale at :
http://www.amazon.com/Bird-Tales-Lesley-Francis/dp/1481058193
http://www.amazon.com/Athlete-Artist-Lesley-P-Francis/dp/1478191406
http://www.amazon.com/Absolutely-Awetistic-Arts-Lesley-Francis/dp/1478211776
http://www.amazon.com/Arts-Project-Adventures-Lesley-Francis/dp/1482644673
http://www.amazon.com/Poetic-Paintings-Volume-Lesley-Francis/dp/1478108436
See artwork for sale at :
http://absolutelyawetisticards.weebly.com/55x80cm-paper.html
http://absolutelyawetisticards.weebly.com/35x50cm-paper.html
http://absolutelyawetisticards.weebly.com/40x40cm-canvas.html
http://absolutelyawetisticards.weebly.com/60x60cm-canvas.html
http://absolutelyawetisticards.weebly.com/60x90cm-canvas.html
http://absolutelyawetisticards.weebly.com/80x80cm-canvas.html
Email : [email protected]