Patricia Frederick a qualified vet was a mature age art student in Albury when we met after I gave a guest lecture for Jane Cocks with whom I had taught at Prahran College. The talking point was painting horses, with Pat well qualified to do as she had brought Easy, her Appaloosa dressage horse with her to Australia. We became firm friends and as the Fredericks were returning to their home in Arizona in 1991 just as I was having my first exhibition in New York with Annina Nosei so I took the opportunity to visit them in Arizona. As the plane prepared for landing the vast desert landscape came into view including the sight of a rusty tower proclaiming arrival at Tucson. With two letters only just hanging on I fell in love with the town and have been back many times, to work, to talk horses, to take a break, and to witness the progress of Pat’s fantastic welded steel sculptures of horses and other creatures.
Pat had also been a very skilled seamstress in her youth so fabrics have been another point of conversation. The Patricia Paintings use fabrics gifted by Pat from her sewing box as support to the images presented here.
–Jenny Watson, March, 2023
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