Rusalka, a Slavic folk tale set to music by Dvořák Vulci Gorge - on the way to the location of Rusalka Rusalka was suggested to me by Ania, a professional singer who had herself performed the role in Dvořák’s eponymous opera. A folk tale found in the slavic world akin to...
Nadia tells her story: "Pleasure is made of simple things. What could perhaps illustrate this best?" The ingredients of a picture: Luxe, Calme et Volupté comes from a line taken from Baudelaire’s poem Invitation du Voyage, but it was a news item about a chocolate confection popular in...
Poetry, music and painting, all converge in this photo-shoot, setting the mood for the final image. This picture had its origins in the sight of a freshly painted blue boat on the shores of Lake Bolsena which reminded me of a painting by Carl Moll, a mysterious, unsettling picture of a blue...
We set off to take a photo on the beach in mid October despite the awful weather because this was the last opportunity of the year. We had planned to take the picture back in 2007 when I met her shortly after opening my gallery in Orvieto, though something had always conspired to postpone time...
In early spring 2009 I took the picture above of a weeping willow on Lake Bolsena, Italy. A fortnight later a high wind ripped off the upper bough and for at least a couple of years it lay semi-submerged, rotting in the shallow water below. Willow Pattern Spode, English willow pattern...
Cyclamen is dear to the muses and Hecate, the mother goddess of dark, chthonic places and witchcraft; cyclamen is the flower of opposites. In folklore it symbolised life and death; an ingredient of wedding cakes to increase fertility yet a woman who walked barefoot on cyclamen would abort; both a...
I went to Art College in Kingston, London, on the banks of a shallow, weedy and unremarkable river with the evocative name of Hogsmill. We were told in History of Art that Millais painted his famous picture further up-stream. Millais’ model was Elizabeth Siddal wife of his friend and...
Orpheus and Eurydice, one of the best known and heart rending myths. The gifted Orpheus whose music was so lovely that he charmed not only women and ferocious beasts but even the trees and rocks. He fell in love with the beautiful nymph Eurydice but on their wedding day she was assaulted...
Chat with Patrick
