PATRICK OATES Ph.D.

Patrick is an academically trained Figurative Fine Artist, Sculpturist and Ceramicist, who produces works of a distinctly bold but naturalistic style. He obtained his first degree specialising in Sculptural Method and Process, studying under John Ridgeman ARCA leading to his doctoral thesis on Post-Medieval Classification of the 17th Century North Devon Slipware. As a historian he has concentrated upon the study of Ethnic and Ancient Civilizations through the legacy of art and architecture, being fortunate enough to visit the Middle East, China, and The Americas, to discover their cultures. As an artist, he has developed an interest in the human form with equal commitment, encapsulating the mystery and dilemma between the Material Substances of Reality and the Psychology of Pictoral Illusion, the very stuff of art and is as much a challenge to the professional as well as the amateur. Patrick is ever mindful that the teaching and demonstration of art should be enriching, enjoyable and an inter-active process. His teaching is as much the delivery of art as responding to the needs of all, always to the mutual benefit of their personal creative development. His life drawings often have been described as Critical. Dispassionate and Brutally Objective. However, technical progress, creative satisfaction and an emergence of one’s own aesthetic style will always be assured through his approach and inspiration.