Bar Beach inspires elemental exhibition.

Local artist Pat Davidson draws on her daily swim at Newcastle’s Bar Beach for her uplifting Earth, Air, Water exhibition, showing at Newcastle’s Timeless Textiles Gallery for one week only in October.

“I swim at Bar Beach almost every morning, and this year through winter as well,” Pat explains. “Face to face with big waves, rocks and the vague possibility of being eaten each morning is life affirming.”

Pat takes a small underwater camera to record the immediate details of the beach each day. She then used the images and her memories of the experiences they recorded to create the haunting works in Earth, Air, Water.

“I have always worked with fabric and threads but have incorporated wax into many of these works. Encaustic is a fascinating media and builds up, not unlike watercolour, into 2-D images. It can also be used for 3-D works.”

Pat Davidson trained as an art teacher at Newcastle, majoring in sculpture. Her training also included a self-directed study in crocheted fibres and she has since focused on textiles. From 1973 Pat made sculptural off-loom pieces, gradually moving through loom work to other creative techniques and dyeing, with a focus on acid dyes, rust-dyeing and cyanotype.

An exploration of the role of cloth in women’s lives led Pat to create more sculptural forms. She extended this practice to create an installation, ‘Text’, for her Master of Arts (Textiles) degree in 2000.  After teaching, lecturing and exhibiting on a regular basis, Pat is enjoying the simplicity of working full-time in her studio.

Earth, Air, Wate runs between12-18 October 2015.