up-and-coming | patricia coombe ― painter | urban landscape
image details: patricia coombe, hunter street precinct, 2023, oil on linen press paper, 65 x 70 cm
At the tender age of 65, Patricia Coombe is proof it’s never too late to pursue your passion. In her case, a unique perspective of Hobart streetscapes.
You could call Patricia a painter with a twist. She uses a complex process “where the oils are burnished into the paper to produce a print-like quality” and “triple pinhole photography brings transparent overlap” to create a distinct style. Add a monochromatic palette with sculptural forms and Patricia’s images “portray a nebulous atmospheric interpretation of urban space.”
Architecture is another passion, and Patricia employs geometric snatches of city shapes to break away from realism and merge into the abstract. In Hunter Street Precinct familiar scenes are re-imagined. The port control tower and a bank of windows creates a striking vista that is at once both familiar and a mystery. Hard to believe it was just five years ago that Patricia threw herself wholeheartedly into art: “This is much more than I had ever hoped for.”