EFA STUDIO PROGRAM: Member Artists
Patricia Leighton
Patricia Leighton, born in Scotland, grew up surrounded by hills and mountains of ever-changing color, texture, and light. She traveled extensively in Britain and Europe viewing ancient sites, drawn by their sense of timelessness and hidden mysteries. Her explorations since have taken her worldwide, and for over 35 years she has created major public art commissions in the UK, Europe, Asia and the US, where she currently lives.
Each project addresses the history of the area, the geology, and its people. The scale of the site, its energy, form, and usage are her starting points for the development of a site-sculpture. Each becomes an unexpected extension of the environment, imbued with the spiritual content of the land.
Leighton usually works in the open, intervening directly with the land. In Scotland she built The Sawtooth Ramps, one of the most impressive examples of Land art in the UK. The seven pyramidal ramps, commissioned by Motorola, are sited adjacent to the M8 motorway along a 1,000 feet corridor, referencing the past industry of the area. The environs influence her approach and her use of materials. Whether shaping the earth, or working with stone, her sculptures quietly draw the viewer into the work, connecting them instinctively to nature.
In 2018 she built a central site sculpture at the International Gangwon Biennale, South Korea, accompanying the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics 2018. The Circle-a Meditation on Nature, a double circular framework, contained local pine and dogwood from the surrounding mountains. Uplifted and lit from within, it provides space for contemplation and unity.
Recently, in 2022, she installed ‘Echo Green’ three elevated living sculptures celebrating nature, in Tyson’s Sculpture Park at Capital One World Headquarters, McLean, Virginia.
