Patrick Brandon: The Night Shift

Patrick Brandon won Max Naylor’s Choice Award in Jackson’s Art Prize this year with his work John, Paul, George and Ringo. In this interview, he discusses embracing error and unpredictability, how poetry whispers into his work, and the narrative suggestions of his non-places.

Above image: Patrick in his studio

Josephine: Could you share the story of how you became an artist and tell us more about your artistic background?

Patrick: I fell in love with creating images and stories at a young age, always dreaming and wandering off, either somewhere outside or somewhere inside my head. I remember, around the age of five or six, tracing a line of shadow that fell from the block of flats on the estate where I grew up, waiting patiently for it to shift, and retracing it through a series of multiple registers. Just for the pleasure and uninformed wonder of it all. The usual childhood story.

Norwich School of Art (1985-1988) was a joy, a place and time filled with people doing their own thing and sharing it with each other. It was during this time that I discovered a love of and facility for poetry, which has been a constant touchstone for how I engage with painting. I published my first collection of poetry, A Republic of Linen, with Bloodaxe Books in 2009, and completed a PhD in painting and poetry practice at Loughborough University in 2021. I focused on exploring the possibilities of multi-directional dialogues between painting and the lyric.

I’ve always kept the two practices mostly separate, with most of my time and energy devoted to painting. In essence, I am a painter who writes poems. I’ve been doing this for so long, I can’t imagine not doing it. I try to keep things loose and simple, and unrestrictive. My philosophy is to simply keep working without worrying too much about any outcome. Something always happens.

Josephine: What does a typical working day in the studio look like for you? Do you have any important routines or rituals?

Patrick: For as long as I can remember, I’ve been on the night shift as a painter. That’s when I seem to be more productive and tuned in. I think perhaps this goes back to finishing college and the sudden necessities of having to find paid work and juggle this with creative practice. Maybe being a little tired and saturated with the day’s experiences takes off some of the edges and makes it easier to slip into painting. I’ll put the occasional day in, on weekends for sure, but it’s usually a 5 pm start and late finish.

Generally, I don’t carry definite ideas or intentions into the studio. I work intuitively and quickly with as little external reference material as possible, other than a loose recollection of the last painting or series of paintings finished. Occasionally, I’ll obliquely refer to a photographic image or a frozen still from a film.

I usually get straight down to it, a fresh canvas on the wall, or paper taped to my desk, paints laid out, a few favourite brushes ranging from the well looked after to a few that have seen better days and are now closer to sticks. This introduces a variety of mark-making possibilities. I welcome error and unpredictability into the process. In a way, I really don’t want to know too much about what happens next. I simply follow the painting wherever it goes. If it’s a disaster, I wash out, scrape back, start again.

Josephine: Which materials or tools could you not live without?

Patrick: My strange family of brushes. Oil paint, linseed oil, turps. Ink. Charcoal. Canvas and paper, and little background music. Good light, real or artificial. And a clear section of wall. That’s it really.

Josephine: Do you work from a reference? Tell us more about your process.

Patrick: Apart from the occasional side glance at a photographic reference (either my own or sourced from elsewhere), I usually prefer to lean into the imperfections of memory. I work quite quickly and get up close to the work in progress. I resist stepping back to make compositional judgements and decisions. Getting up close can feel like trying to dance your way through a crowded train that’s rounding a corner at speed – you have to twist yourself to find or carve out space for movement. Although my paintings are predominantly landscape, they are very much non-places, apparently empty but filled with narrative suggestion, where human and animal make occasional guest appearances.

Josephine: Do you regularly draw or keep a sketchbook? If so, how does this inform your work?

Patrick: As a rule of habit, I don’t usually work from drawings. Sometimes I’ll work from scraps of paper, a little throwaway thumbnail sketch, or doodle used as a suggestive guide rather than a plan to work up from.

Josephine: Have you ever had a period of stagnation in creativity? If so, what helped you overcome it?

Patrick: Getting stuck is part of the process. It can feel like you’re trying to push a brick with a length of string when, in fact, you should be pulling. It always seems to pass once you get the action and attitude right. Just work through it even if the results are disappointing.

I find looking at the work of others is a great loosener and motivator. There are specific artists and poets I’ll keep going back to. Sometimes a line of text from a poem or song will find its way into the studio and whisper images to work from. Sometimes music helps, generating shifts in mood and associative images. Or cold silence if I want the decks cleared of distraction.

Josephine: Are there any specific artists or mentors who have inspired you?

Patrick: Aside from the ever-changing list of contemporary and historical artists and poets, it would be the artists and poets who produce amazing work and still have the time and energy and generosity of spirit to champion and facilitate the work of others.

Josephine: What were you thinking about or exploring at the time you made John, Paul, George and Ringo? What inspired it, and how did it come to be?

Patrick: It was a moment of associative thinking. Maybe I’d been going through a Beatles phase again, which usually happens at least eight days a week. Sitting one warm summer evening, shooting the breeze with a fellow artist, sitting in a favourite spot, and idly watching the hours drift by. I suppose that on this particular evening, I noticed my surroundings in a clearer yet stranger way than before. Four trees had seemed to come together into a kind of relationship, leaves shivering like hair, mop tops, the Fab Four – a moment of pareidolia. It was a rare occasion where I used a photograph as reference, although it functioned more as a point of departure. I find that indirect rather than slavish reference works for me, a prompt for remembering the feel of things..

Josephine: What made you submit this piece to Jackson’s Art Prize?

Patrick: It was simply a case of submitting something that was fresh, that was a fair representation of where I currently find myself in the journey.

Josephine: In Max Naylor’s statement about your work, he said, ‘The horizontal brushstrokes add a sense of movement, giving the image a fleeting quality as though glimpsed from a passing car.’ Was this an intentional decision to further amplify the pareidolia of the trees?

Patrick: To be honest in my response to what the painting was asking me. But in retrospect, it fits together. It’s interesting how a register of movement can also achieve a sense of stillness and quiet, trying to capture that lazy evening hush or lull.

Josephine: You paint many nocturnal scenes – what inspires you about the night time? And do you tend to paint these works during the night itself, or work on them during the day?

Patrick: I suppose I’m drawn to liminal moments, the turning point or transition from one state to another, either day slipping into night or night slipping into day. I like the apparent imprecision or vagueness – information and colour operating at the edge of sleep. It’s not necessarily an outcome exclusive to working at night, but I’m sure it has an influence.

Josephine: Are there any new techniques or ideas you’re excited to explore using the materials from your prize?

Patrick: I would like to experiment with slowing things down and extending the process, perhaps through using glazes. Michael Harding and Jackson’s oils are always a go-to for quality and consistency. I intend to broaden the range I usually reach for. And I would also like to expand my use of paper as a surface, using oils and inks. It’s a wonderful opportunity to bring a little more material play into my practice.

Josephine: How did it feel to move through the stages of the competition and win Max Naylor’s Choice Award?

Patrick: I was taken aback by the number of works submitted and hadn’t anticipated progressing to an award. So, it’s a great feeling to get a thumbs up from an artist whose work I have long admired, and fantastic to be able to restock the materials larder.

Josephine: What’s coming up next for you?

Patrick: Getting on with the work and taking and/or shaping any opportunities for sharing that may arise. I feel a series of hybrid interior/exterior pieces coming on, and keeping the application quite thin and bright but always ready to move black into the gloom.

Follow Patrick on Instagram

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