patty mcgonigal

I studied at Edinburgh College of Art (BA Fine Art, Painting, 1999) and have exhibited widely across Scotland. My paintings are in one way or another always portraits, either portraits of people or portraits of buildings.  I approach painting portraits of buildings as i would a human subject, attempting to capture something of the edifice or facade that glimpses at the interior world.  The prominence of the built environment in my work can be traced to lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic, when the streets were empty without the chaos of human traffic.  I began to view buildings as proxies for people, not only in the sense that they were a stand in but also in terms of how they contain people's lives.  All my paintings are to an extent self-portraits.  My connection to the building is often signalled through the inclusion of discrete visual symbols that capture moments of recognition that is hoped the viewer may share.  Whilst buildings do not remember, they are reminders to us of the human events they have witnessed, and my portraits of buildings are intended to offer a place for viewers to reflect and to evoke their own narrative.