Patsy Hely
A ceramist who incorporates materials such as glass, wood and metal in her work, Patsy Hely has recently been preoccupied with recording life around her, from the birds she sees to the people she encounters. For some time now, I’ve largely set aside my usual practice as a maker of domestic objects, jugs, cups, etc., and embarked upon a project of painting portraits. I wanted to step outside my normal area and see what happened. I’ve been attending a weekly portrait-painting group to work with a model and at the same time have been taking a lot of photographs of friends, family and colleagues with the aim of painting from them. I’ve found these two types of looking and image-making interesting – for instance, I’m surprised how tender I feel toward models after just a few hours of scrutiny and drawing, even though they are perfect strangers. As a way of thinking through some of the ideas generated by looking – at friends and strangers, at portraits and motivations – I’ve developed this work and included images of both myself and of others. For me, it documents a time where I’ve stepped somewhat outside my usual identity.
Self portrait with others (looking at, looked at) 2017 porcelain and ceramic media Courtesy of the artist. 16
NSPP
National Self-Portrait Prize