Patrick Morales-Lee

What is your background & How did you come to be an artist ?

Being an artist was always the dream. But it's something that has only really become tangible in recent years, in fact, I’ve only really been comfortable calling myself an artist in the last two years or so. My art journey has stopped and started many times. I graduated in Fine Art in 1998 from Plymouth University, during this time, I was lucky enough to be taught by the painter John Virtue. My three years there and I would add my three years previous at a local Somerset college, we're arguable the best days of my life. Before this, school was an awful experience, average teaching and no drive at all to inspire, for example my careers meeting at school suggested I should be a petrol pump assistant in adult life… geez thanks.

Anyway, after graduating, I continued to paint in the evenings and weekends, while I secured a graphic design job and moved to Brighton. But as I reached my thirties, my art was going nowhere. I met a girl, moved to London, where I continued my day job as a graphic designer, while still painting in the evenings/weekends.

As I reached my late thirties, the art was still going nowhere. I had gotten in a few group exhibitions, signed to an art agency briefly, sold a few pieces here and there. But overall, the art wasn’t saying anything I wanted it to. By this time I was now married and had my first daughter. We moved to Whitstable in 2014, and I had all but given up on an art career. In 2015, I decided to switch careers and started a PGCE course to become an art tutor.

How did the teacher training go?

But after just three months, two things became clear, firstly I was seriously missing art, missing creating art, from being around the students, all I wanted to do was get back to my own practise. The second thing that arose, it was clear I had a serious personal issue, to do with my confidence and own identity, something that I knew always existed, but ignored.

What was the turning point?

I decided to have some therapy. I was fostered at the age of three and during my adult life, I had never seriously explored this side of my past, even though it was always present in some form. The family I was fostered into couldn’t have been better, they are still my family now in fact. But to have the space to explore and come to terms with what was such a monumental stage in my life, was a real turning point for me. Not only did I come to terms with what happened, feelings of anger and rejection, but it abled me for the first time to have real ambition to become a professional artist, it really felt that this side was literally unlocked. I really belief without these sessions I wouldn’t be where I am today. So since the very start of 2016, its feasible to say this is when my professional art practise began, oddly 18 years after I graduated.

Where are you based, and what do you like about being in the studio?

I'm based in Whitstable and recently just moved into a new studio which is five minutes from where I live. So, it really is an ideal situation. I love the studio environment, I’ve always been very comfortable being in my own company, so the solitary aspect of it is almost welcome. My studio is a pretty fair reflection of me, I'm surround by books, magazines, old toys, a stack off CDs, I think I must be the only person who buys CDs still.

***The Crossover by Patrick Morales-Lee***

What are your preferred mediums?

My preferred mediums are mainly pencil, charcoal and currently I'm using charcoal powder a lot. With many of the pieces I also use a chemical spray, it basically a turps type thing. It's a technique I stumbled on very early when I started up drawing again. I basically spray the areas I want to play with, then using a sponge or even my fingers.. im able to move the charcoal and pencil around a bit.. its a very instinctive process, as I only really have a minute or so to play before it dries. I like the idea of the sub conscious leading my choices, rather than over thinking on it. Obviously it can be a risky way of working, as for every 2/3 successful plays, I also get one, which basically doesn’t work and I have to abandon it. Also, I’ve recently brought colour and paint into the drawings, mixing the two different mediums can be a little jarring, but I certainly feel there is something interesting in the interplay between the mediums. Each piece like this is a little work in progress, but my gut is telling me its the way to go, I certainly feel its important to keep pushing your practise and not just rest on an existing style or technique.

What is your work about - what are the main ideas in it and have they changed over time ?

My work deals with the idea of identity and belief. As mentioned above, from being fostered at the age of three I was constantly aware of my surroundings and the need to fit in growing up. Looking back, I recognise those feelings as universal and the work looks to explore the ‘human condition’, specifically what makes people do what they do to have a sense of belonging – from the everyday to the extreme.

From the schoolyard to being an adult, we constantly look to define ourselves by trying to fit into a group. Aspiring to be one of the ‘cool kids’, aligning yourself with a religious faith or football team, fashion, music, brands and celebrities, the sense of being in a tribe is all around us.

The work looks to showcase snapshot scenarios – a soft narrative to a given situation, process or ceremony. These scenarios could be, on the one hand, unsettling or odd, but to others comforting and familiar. In essence I have created my own religious movement or cult, by doing this, by imagining ceremonies, I can create a mirror to my own experiences of belief and identity.

Often the figure depicted is within a ceremony of sorts, a lot inspiration is taken from the Christian ceremony ‘Communion’ the idea of transformation, taking on something new, be that the belief of the ‘action’, in the case of Communion, the action of taking the bread and wine being the body and blood of christ. I call this ‘active belonging’, the idea that people will participate physically and mentally in an action, a ceremony to show to themselves, to show to others that they believe, that there is meaning in the process, that they aren’t alone, they belong to something, giving a tangible meaning to their own life.

What art do you most identify with, and what work do you most enjoy doing?

I don’t have any specific genre or movement that I lean towards, it's all about having a connection with it, be that representational painting, drawing or abstract work, to sculpture and even conceptual art. For example, the one piece that has probably influenced more than anything since I started again four years ago, is the artwork ‘An Oak Tree’ by Michael Craig-Martin. I remember seeing it for the first time during a university trip, it wasn’t love at first sight, but it certainly made an impression, mainly from the Q&A which is accompanied with the piece, it was just so interesting.

Then I came across it again, just before I started up my practise again and it really resonated with me this time, the theme of belief, it just kinda clicked in me, this is what my work should be about. I also love the fact within the Q&A that he mentions it took him years to realise that he could do this. The experience of time and almost growing that sense of belief needed to see the Oak Tree, that journey of time to be able to see something which in essence has always been possible, really resonates with me.

***Confirmation by Patrick Morales-Lee***

Which artists do you look to inspiration or have had a strong influence in your work, and has that changed over time ?

My work has changed considerably over the years. It was only in the last two years of Uni, that I realised painting was the way forward for me. At the time I was very into the pop movement, during this time I saw Warhol’s electric chair piece at the Pompidou, It was the first time I had a physical emotional response to a piece of art, my heart was literally pounding. I was also very into artists like Richard Hamilton, David Salle and Robert Rauschenberg, using multi images to create a narrative. So throughout my twenties, my paintings were very much along these lines, working in a square format, painting images in a collage arrangement, people, planes, food, animals. Trying to create a narrative, but one which was more like a film, it was totally disconnect to me and any emotions. After this I had a phase when I stripped it back to simple terms, painting straight forward portraits, I guess I was my attempt to push myself and improve as a painter.

With my current work, the artists who inspire me vary from painters like Michael Borremans and Adrian Ghenie, up to the superstars of Jenny Saville and Peter Doig. As for subject matter, I find a lot inspiration from the religious movement, The Church of the Latter Day Saints, this is from the ceremonies and the structure of the church, to the visuals, I’m currently obsessed with what the women wear, which are these very simple, old fashioned dresses, almost Amish, but cleaner in design. They are utterly beautiful, yet they are like a uniform within the church for the women. It's just such an interesting movement.

Where do you show your work - and what memorable responses have you had to your work?

I’m currently working with Helium London, who is Jenni McCormick, she been an art dealer for over 15 years and has an amazing list of clients, so she’s great at getting my work out there and selling. We met at the exhibition 'Pavement Lickers' in 2018, she co-curated the exhibition with the creators of the cult zine Pavement Licker. It was a group exhibition, a mix of 50 up and coming and established artists. The idea was each artist was given a paving slab to create their work on, which were then sold in a blind sale for £1,000. I was delighted to be invited to create a piece for it, especially as other artists involved included Antony Gormley, FAILE, Robert Del Naja, Ralph Steadman, VHILS, Will Martyr, Anthony Lister and many more. The response to my piece, titled ‘Spectacle’ was overwhelming to be honest, It was the most sought after of all 50 pieces (bar maybe Gormley’s, for obvious reasons) and was the personal favourite of Jenni’s. So since then we’ve worked together, which has resulted in her selling the original drawing of Spectacle to a famous collector. We then launched my first official screen print in December 2019. Due to the demand, we actually did a print run of the Pavement Licker paving slab, a lovely 5 colour beauty. So this one piece as been hugely important for me so far.

***Holy Garment by Patrick Morales-Lee***

What do you have planned for 2020?

I have quite a lot coming up, thankfully. At the moment, I’m working on 6/7 new pieces, which I will be showing at The Other Art Fair in March this year in London.

I’m also in a group show at the start March, which is for the CBPP (Contemporary British Portrait Painters), which is an art collective of some of the best portrait and figurative painters in the UK, which was formed last year. Then in April, I will be showing a piece in the Chaiya Art Awards, which I’ve just found out I’ve been shortlisted for. Then in May/June I will be showing some works in the Dorset Art Weeks, in conjunction with my art dealer Jenni.

Over the summer, there is a good chance I will also be at the East Art Fair at Old Spitalfields Market, which is curated by Ace Club on a quarterly basis, which is another art collective that I am part off. So plenty of chances for people to come out and see my work.