by Jim Shore

“A picture is worth a thousand words” There is obvious truth in that old adage. So, trying to describe an artist and his art is a difficult task. I’d like to take a stab at it by presenting, to you, a short interpretation of the works of an exceptionally gifted artist.

Patrick Walshe, as a man, is warm, engaging and mild mannered. His art is anything but. I’m not sure what underlying factors have come together to shape the form and substance of his magnificent creations. It’s possible that being Irish has had something to do with it, for so many of his land and seascapes share the joys and sorrows of that ancient and beautiful island.

Viewing the works of Patrick Walshe is an exciting study of contrasts. The transition from realism to the suggestive abstraction is seamless. One is drawn into the painting by the depth of the sometimes dark and brooding, or by contrast, the light and airy backgrounds, filled with hope and anticipation.

His strokes are sometimes applied with delicate, complex, and realistic precision. Other times, the desired effects are achieved with bold shocking slashes of exciting color. It’s with fascination that one views Patrick’s works up close because it is then that you realize you are looking at color and shape applied in the abstract. However, the real genius of Patrick Walshe emerges as you step back and view the art at a distance. This is when the subjects begin to emerge. You are no longer looking at random strokes but rather the emergence of forest, fields, sky, sea, and sunlight reflecting off pools and rivulets. Sometimes storm clouds are gathering or morning light is peeking through the mist. Equally moving is the emotional effects of Patrick’s art. The scenes and circumstances found in the painting invariably create a scene of anticipation and curiosity.

While most artists attempt to lead the viewer’s eye back into the paintings, Patrick, on the other hand, makes you want to explore. You’ll want to know what’s around the corner, what’s on the other side of that hill, what will I find if I walk to the other side of this forest, what will the sunlight feel like and how will the air smell. There is so much more to be said, but I’ll leave those discoveries up to you.

So, it is with extreme pleasure that I introduce the artworks, with a capital A, of Patrick Walshe. I invite you to enter his world and be prepared for an exciting visual adventure. Enjoy!

Jim Shore.
South Carolina,
September 2008

A Short Biography

I was born at home, in the Irish West Coast town of Ennis in the early 1950’s, a time when a horse and cart was a more common means of transport than a motor car. My background was somewhat unusual in that my mother was an English Protestant, my father a disillusioned Irish Catholic, fifty years my senior. My father’s position as a lawyer prevented the excessive cruelties of the Christian Brothers though I was well informed that my mother was condemned to Hell because she was a “Black Protestant”

My childhood was wild and innocent in a time before consumerism, in a town where parents never feared where their children were playing, or indeed what they were getting up to!

I was always painting and by the time I was sent away to boarding school at 12 my “playroom” had been converted to a studio. While at Boarding school I came under the influence of a real life “Dead Poets Society” figure who ran the Art Department, much to the consternation of parents and faculty alike. This truly confirmed my calling and while my father would not countenance Art College I became president of the Art Society at Trinity College Dublin for 3 of the 4 years of my undergraduate studies in Business and Economics. This was an anarchic group of international “hippie freaks” as we were referred to in 1970’s Dublin. Though we were poor, these were fantastic times that have influenced the course of the rest of my life. A time of great intellectual stimulation and debate.

On graduating from Trinity I was fortunate that the times were tough and there were no jobs available in the Business and Economics fields and so I was able to pursue my chosen career as an unemployed artist. Like all artists I eventually had to find some means of surviving and by accident I fell into the life of “Kitchen Confidential,” literally. It proved the perfect part time career for me, with what I believe are many of the same disciplines and intensities as painting. And I was good at it.

In 1982 I was selected as part of a review Exhibition of Contemporary Irish Painting being hosted by North-Eastern University in Boston. I travelled to the U.S. for the opening and in New York had an experience that transformed my life. I met an English designer who was working for Gloria Vanderbilt. We were married a year later and I found myself living in a loft in Bedford Stuyvesant, exhibiting in the East Village and working as a chef in the Water Club in Manhattan.

In 1986 we moved to L.A. when my wife got a job with Carole Little. This was the toughest and bleakest part of my artistic career. I felt L.A. was a wasteland for artists, a grim no hope scenario that nearly dragged me under, though during this time I did exhibit, to little recognition, both there and in Chicago. My art at this time was as confused as my soul as I chased the zeitgeist of the "American Contemporary Artscene".

In the early 90’s we returned to Ireland via India, Indonesia and Africa to start a family and for a few years I had a hiatus from my painting in order to help Rosalind with a business she had begun. This venture collapsed in 2002. Another defining moment in my life that made me realise I was made for one thing only, painting.

I had crossed the threshold of my half-century when I suddenly found that my work had taken on a new dimension. The work became “clear” and my own . I no longer referred to what was happening elsewhere in the Art World, what game the big boys were playing. I didn’t know, as I was cocooned in the wondrous Wicklow mountains. I reduced my work to the language of Landscape in order to minimise the intellectual subtext. The work was to be pared to essence, self-explanatory and immediate. I realised I had at last found my “song” and people began to respond. Visual Art should not require a Manifesto.

I strive for simplicity and clarity. My struggle is to strip my work of unnecessary intellectual noise, so that if the idea can be better conveyed in words it should not be painted. Painting should be like symphony, or meditation,untranslatable, a discipline unto itself. If there is a manifesto for my work it is to give a voice to non-urban contemporary art, to create work that can only be fully appreciated by direct interaction. It is all about those instants of heightened awareness that the artist experiences and strives to dramatise in a way that conveys the essence of place, time and emotion to the viewer. No worldweary and hardened cynicism here I'm afraid!

Patrick Walshe 2010.