Biography – Patrick Palmer Artist

As you can see I specialise in capturing the female form – subtle, classical nudes in oil, charcoal, graphite and red chalk.

Background

Born in Henley, I spent most of my adult life in London but also periods in Hong Kong and Dublin. I am now settled in Windsor.

I abandoned a successful career in publishing at the age of 40 to follow my lifelong passion.

I trained at Heatherleys School of Art and was then taught by Michael Clark, who knew Francis Bacon very well (and incidentally the only person to draw him in the flesh) – his wonderful tonal paintings and drawings left indelible marks on me and inspire me to this day.

I had been going to life-drawing classes for many years so continuing to use the figure as my subject was a natural progression.

My work has been included in the books ‘Images of Women in Art’ and ‘Musings of Miss Yellow’ and this year I was invited to participate in Sky Artist of the Year.

As well as being a stay-at-home Dad, I now paint from my Windsor studio and run my own life-drawing classes at the Windsor Art Centre.

Statement

It’s very important not to just fill a painting in and, in my opinion, what distinguishes a work of art from a painting, is the decisions made along the way – playing down or omitting unimportant bits and focusing on more important areas.

This way you can change the balance of the image – details from less interesting parts do not compete with the more appealing parts. The mind tends to fill in the gaps – as long as it is given enough information – and knowing the moment when you get to this point is key. The less is more principal.

Past Exhibitions

Books

Media Coverage