Pat Walker

The contrast of light and its absence, evocative of Rembrandts use of chiaroscuro, is the defining component of her style. By means of it she aims to create mystery and emotion. These two elements are the real subjects of her work. Her classic representations of fruit, jug, table and cloth are windows opening to domestic worlds. The views evoke tales of life in imagined homes and times. Her representation of the human face is a view to the inner world of the subjects personality; the unarticulated life-quest, heroic, tragic, wise, at-risk, on the cusp of accepting inevitable challenges and the resigned contentment of latter years. Her faces cannot be forgotten. They linger teasing from the viewers mind the story that explains; or searching for a name that has the power to keep safe what the viewer experienced.