About Patricia
Bio
Patricia Eschuk is an emerging, multidisciplinary, visual artist who lives and works in Manitoba. For many years she mentored with various Manitoba artists and completed the MAWA mentorship program in 2012. She went on to complete her Fine Arts Degree at the University of Manitoba in 2018.
She works primarily with oil paints and mixed media drawing. Much of her work is inspired by the natural world and she prefers to paint en plain air within Manitoba forests and prairie grasslands.
Patricia is interested in our inherent connection and relationship with the natural world as well as greater awareness of internal relationships within ourselves. Prior to pursuing a professional artistic practice she worked and taught as a physical therapist and holistic energy healing practitioner. Her extensive understanding and experience in working manually with the human body and its energy consciousness system influences her art work and imbues it with both vibrant, expressive energy and sensitivity.
Click here to view my Curriculum Vitae
Artist Statement
As a visual artist working mainly with paint and drawing mediums I seek to communicate through nonverbal language by creating physical objects transcribed with colour, expressive mark, texture, shape, and composition elements. These visual elements provide me with a broad method to communicate aspects of my own physicality, state of being, and experience of the world that I cannot convey in any other way. Manually manipulating these mediums allows for a direct, physical expression of my creative energy. Working in this way is a natural extension for me, after a career as a manual physical therapist.
I paint and draw to express not only what I see, but how I think, and am moved by what I am seeing and sensing. Thus my process is a mixture of direct observation and intuition. I work in layers of colour, opacity, and texture, and respond to the image that is emerging allowing myself to explore within the work as it shifts between construction and deconstruction with each new layer. The finished product often transcends representational form or enters into a dialogue with it. The work is not intended to convey specific thoughts and images. Instead, I wish to invite the viewer to follow their own interpretations and perceptions.
Quiet solitude surrounds me and the weight of life’s cares slowly slips away.
I can breathe.
The assault of colour, form, space and light on my senses is overwhelming.
Breathe.
As I stand in the vibrant stillness of the forest teaming with life and death I seek poetic passageway.
Portals of mystery and allure beckon as I look from the edge of the path.
Breathe.
I am drawn into the moment as the forest flows through me.
Paint.
Patricia, 2018.
Wild Rhubarb, 2018, was painted en plein air in the above forest (as seen in the image above). This forest is located on the shores of Lake Winnipeg in Manitoba.