bio

Patricia Abela is an Australian artist based in the Blue Mountains. Patricia studied Visual Arts at the University of Newcastle and has a Bachelor of Arts Visual Arts and a Diploma of Visual Arts (winning the Jean Wright Memorial Scholarship). She also has a Diploma of Education through the University of Western Sydney.

Her art work is highly responsive to the sublime beauty of the World Heritage listed Blue Mountains National Park and its fragility. Patricia explores the concepts of the transient nature of life and the permanence of death using natural materials and found objects such as animal bones. This transition from life to death is represented in sculptural forms and drawings that embody strength and a spiritual power. The natural materials are a symbol of the impermanence of life.

The practice of knotting by Patricia is a reflection of traditional practices in the South Pacific of forming objects by hand through materials found in the environment.

This tradition is melded with Western concepts of scale and form to create objects both familiar and unknowable. It balances both ephemerality and permanence:

“One of the things I look for in sculpture is it gives up its meaning. Descriptive in an abstract form. The material is significant in the work in itself and helps identify the work with the artist. The ‘vessel’ is a great metaphor used by artists to tell their story and in this work by Patti, the combination of metaphor and materials has developed a work that is engaging in its minimalist form,” said Neil Laredo - Judge, Blackheath Art Competition, 2019.

A teacher of art and studies, Patricia has facilitated art projects in Vanuatu. She is the founder and director of the Vanuatu Art Project (VAP)