PATRICIA KELLY AND THE POETRY OF DAILY LINES
| by Barbara Pavan |
Patricia Kelly is an Irish artist born in County Fermanagh, where she lives and works. She attended Ulster University in Belfast, where she earned a B.A. with Honors in Fine Craft Design, specializing in embroidered textiles in 1986, followed by a PGCE in Art Education. She taught Art and Design until 2021.
Through freehand embroidery techniques, Kelly creates works in which the stitched line becomes a form of artistic expression that increasingly leans towards abstraction. Her art is influenced and inspired by the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi, which finds beauty in imperfection, as well as the rugged landscapes and skies of Western Ireland, where lines are created by hedgerows silhouetted against the colored skies. A deep sense of belonging to a place, where family history intertwines with present lives, is a determining element in her art. It takes shape through the use of recycled fabrics, much like the generations before her who made quilts, a practice that evokes the layering of connected lives sewn together. She has exhibited in solo and group shows in public and private spaces across Italy, Ireland, the USA, Australia, and the UK. Some of her works are part of permanent collections, and she has received numerous awards and recognitions.
Patricia Kelly’s art weaves a deeply personal narrative of connection to the land, the passage of time, and the enduring practices of labor. Her work is a meditative exploration of line and shape, deeply inspired by the landscape of her native west of Ireland. Over time, Kelly’s artistic journey has evolved from studying the organic shapes of the natural world to focusing on the subtle intricacies of line and geometry. Initially captivated by the tangled branches silhouetted against the night sky, she found herself drawn to the fine, scribbly line, which she explored further through stitched lines. Her process led her to experiment with overlapping and repeating lines, finding new ways to express this visual language through the layering of transparencies. Kelly’s fascination with geometric grounds developed alongside this, which she attributes to our intrinsic need to organize spaces. Growing up on a farm where tactile, linear labor was a daily routine – such as making hay and cutting turf – Kelly was naturally drawn to the patterns and processes of the land, the fields organized by ditches, and the organic order they created.
From an early age, Kelly was drawn to fiber, thread, and textiles. She remembers the tactile experience of working with fabric, particularly the feel of a tweed used to make a doll’s dress, which left a lasting impression on her. Encouraged by a primary school curriculum that included sewing, knitting, and other crafts, Kelly’s passion for working with thread deepened. She embroidered her Irish dancing dress at the age of ten, a pivotal moment that sparked her interest in needlework. Throughout her school years, she continued to explore various mediums, including stitching, collage, and batik, before pursuing a degree in Fine Craft Design at Belfast’s Art College, specializing in Embroidery.
Kelly’s artistic practice is characterized by an organic, flowing approach to materials and techniques. Her work evolves through a process of trial and error, where one idea often leads to another. While in the past, she used recycled clothing to create collaged works overlaid with zigzag stitching, her recent work has moved toward a more minimalist, geometric approach, using straight stitches and black thread. She stitches on layers of recycled materials, such as curtain linings, tablecloths, calico, and hessian, which are then layered with scrim transparencies to create a pencil-drawing effect. As she works, Kelly enjoys creating contrasts in the density of stitching, some areas more tightly stitched than others. “The pieces are becoming more geometrically ordered in terms of composition,” she reflects, noting that the line in her work is becoming increasingly fluid and deliberate.
For Kelly, the materials and techniques she uses are deeply conceptual, carrying not only functional value but also a connection to her past. Her interest in abstract work was rekindled through her exploration of embroidery, an art form that allows her to connect with the physical labor of her ancestors. Her work, she explains, reflects the lives of generations that preceded her, people who performed repetitive physical tasks with little material wealth but a deep awareness of nature’s cycles. The rhythms of life on the land, the toil of her great-grandfather, a cobbler, and the women who spun wool and embroidered lace, all speak to Kelly’s connection with the past. Her art, in a way, serves as a tribute to these traditional craft practices and the rural occupations that are disappearing in modern times.
Kelly’s process is deeply therapeutic. She begins each piece with a sense of urgency to sew, to create a continuous line. This act becomes a form of self-expression, almost like a meditative ritual. As she works, she evaluates the piece, often allowing it to evolve in unexpected ways. “Sometimes I have an idea of how I want the piece to look, but often the piece changes as I progress,” she notes. This fluid approach allows for mistakes to be incorporated, and rejected pieces often find new life in later works. Kelly loves the idea of adding previously worked pieces into new creations because, like the recycled materials she uses, they already carry a history that contributes to the final piece.
In recent years, Kelly’s art has taken on new dimensions, particularly after a period of reflection following her redundancy due to the closure of a rural school in 2021. This shift provided her with the time and space she had longed for to devote fully to her art. During this time, she noticed the repeated appearance of the color red in her work, which led her to investigate its historical significance. A visit to the Irish Museum of Countrylife revealed that red had been used in Irish tradition to dispel evil and protect against illness. Kelly’s exploration of red, dyed with the medicinal plant madder, connects her work to the past, where it symbolized protection and healing. She contrasts this with the use of black in her pieces, which she associates with safety and security, as it often appears as a soft fabric, such as wool, suggesting a sense of comfort.
Being an artist, for Kelly, is a way to express the deep, often unspoken parts of herself. She sees art as a form of therapy, a quiet space where she can process and communicate her personal experiences. “We all have something inside, as individual as our signature, which needs to find an outlet,” she says. In her view, art is essential to understanding oneself and one’s place in the world. She believes that art plays a crucial role in the development of communities and individuals, helping them gain a deeper understanding of their identity. As she concludes, “Art needs to remain high on the priority of politicians and educators if people and communities are to fully develop an understanding of themselves and their place in the world.” Kelly’s work, which intertwines personal reflection with cultural memory, continues to resonate with the human need for connection, healing, and self-expression.
Over the years, she has gained recognition for her distinctive approach to contemporary textile art. Among these, recently (2025) she was selected for the International Art Textile Biennale (IATB) by Fibre Arts Australia and awarded a solo exhibition at the SCD Textile & Art Studio in Perugia, Italy. Her participation in Somas Research Exhibition at the University of Cyprus further demonstrated her commitment to interdisciplinary exploration. Notable group exhibitions include Gallery 545 in Belfast, Drawing Box International across Europe, and Paul Hughes Fine Arts in the UK.
In 2024, Kelly’s work featured prominently in exhibitions such as Gallery 57’s “Cloth and Clay” in Sussex, the Cairde Arts Festival in Ireland, and MuRTAC Museo del Ricamo e del Tessile in Valtopina, Italy. Her inclusion in publications such as Charlotte Vannier’s book on thread-based artists and her selection for the Craft Makers Directory in Northern Ireland reflect her standing in the field. Other recent accolades include the 2023 N.I. SIAP Award for the Individual Artist, recognition by Fibre Arts Take Two in Australia, and features on TextileArtist.org and Artemorbida.
Her work is held in public and private collections worldwide, including the National Irish Visual Arts Library (NIVAL), the HSE, and Enniskillen Castle Museum.
