Tuëma Pattie

Knoydart River

2002

Tuëma Pattie was born in Dublin and studied at the Belfast College of Art, the Central School of Art and Design and Morley College, London, Piers Ottey and Christopher Baker in Sussex and Robin Child in Devon. In her early days in Belfast and London, she took advantage of urban scenes as her subject matter. She then had a long period in which she took time out to have two children and to support her husband in his career. This meant it was difficult to find the time for her beloved painting, as was the case for many women in that era. While living in London, Tuëma Pattie painted the city extensively. From iconic views and more representational style to scenes less known and very much experimental, the capital appears in Tuëma's artwork in her many vibrant facets. Coinciding with her move out of London in 1989, Tuëma had the opportunity to travel extensively. Subject matter reflects her many voyages with city scenes and landscapes from the Galápagos, Antarctica, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Namibia, Spain, Uzbekistan as well as her beloved Sussex. Bursts of energy accumulate in Pattie's artworks and evolve into a more experimental approach, which soon becomes her signature style. Her artistic gift may have been influenced by her great aunt Sarah Purser (1848 – 1943), portraitist and stained glass artist who was the first female member of the Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin, in 1924. Similar to her great aunt, Tuëma Pattie has exhibited extensively at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition; the London Art Fair; the Royal Hibernian Summer Exhibition; the Cork Street Gallery; Art for Youth at the Mall Gallery London; London Art Fair; the Chichester Open; the Moncrief Bray Gallery, the Kevis House Gallery and the Rowntree Tryon Gallery all in Petworth; The East Hampshire Art Fair; The Jorgensen Gallery in Dublin and at Glyndebourne in West Sussex. Her work is also hanging in Government House in Stormont House, Northern Ireland. Robin Child – 2020 – said - “At times, Tuëma’s painting has the explosive painterliness akin to Bomberg at his best, where colours melt and fold into one another, moving through the cool and warm spectrum with enviable ease…. (see) how rich her imagination is and how fluent her brush strokes are. There is a believable atmosphere that hovers over the coloured bands of the abstract landscapes that enhance the feeling of space and soften the edges of the tonal forms.”