Patricia Volk, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Sculptors, was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and has a studio in Farleigh Hungerford, Somerset. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including at Buekenholf-Phoenix Gallery in Belgium, Chichester Cathedral and the Royal West of England Academy, also appearing in the collections of Swindon Museum & Art Gallery, Lord Carrington, Simon Relph CBE, the British Consul (Ivory Coast) and Mary Portas. She was Regional Winner of the ING “Discerning Eye” prize in 2007 and has been shortlisted for the prestigious Brian Mercer Residency.

One of her pieces was also selected as a Southern Arts prize. “As a sculptor I love working with the directness of clay, using all the techniques, coiling and slab building, making one-off pieces, which are fired then finished with acrylic paint. Classical sculpture was always highly coloured but we have this erroneous idea that they were all white and sterile looking. My obsession as an artist is catching a very simple form or line, then enhancing it with colour. Sometimes these are juxtapositions that I hope suggest contradictions of strength and fragility, stability and precariousness – like the relationships between human beings. But also of rest and activity, grace and motion, that give an object a lively presence and a sense of individual character. But really all this is open to the eye of the beholder. I never want to be too prescriptive, and in saying this much I’ve probably said too much.”

Patricia was invited by the Trustees of the Designer Crafts Foundation to go to Israel in December to be one of their guest sculptors. This involves attending & speaking at the symposium in Tel Hai, lecturing in Jerusalem at the Israel Museum and at the Bet Benyamini Centre in Tel Aviv.

On the 28th June we revealed Patricia's collection of works to the public during a private viewing. We had a fantastic night toasting the arrival of her vibrant ceramics and learning about them from the artist herself.