NEXT STOP NEW YORK: Pacific Palms artist Trisha Fitzpatrick will travel to New York next month for the opening of her exhibition at the Agora Gallery in the heart of the Chelsea art district in New York.

TRISHA Fitzpatrick loves the blank canvas. “I love to experiment, having the blank canvas and just creating from the mind,” Trisha explained from her home gallery at Pacific Palms.

“It’s what’s so great about painting abstract, every work is completely original even the artist cannot repeat it or replicate it exactly the same way. I like to push the boundaries and try something different.”

It’s proved a fruitful move that will see her artistic journey continue in the heart of the New York art world at Chelsea’s Agora Gallery that will exhibit her work in May as part of its Out from Down under exhibition. Trisha is one of six Australian artists to feature in the exhibition after Agora discovered her work online.

“Eighty per cent of my work has been commission, so I don’t do many exhibitions, but they contacted me last year after visiting my website and asked if I’d be interested in exhibiting.It was very daunting in the beginning but I worked through from May to the end of last year putting these 15 paintings together.”

Overcoming fear has been a constant aspect of Trisha’s art career which began when she decided to pursue a lifelong dream in 1994.

“I’d been busy with the kids and running our business (with husband John) so when that settled down John said ‘why don’t you do something you’ve always wanted to do?’ so I went to an art class terrified thinking what am I doing here? But I remember getting a card from my daughter that said ‘go for it Leonardo’ so the encouragement from the family really helped me stay with it.”

After that first art class, Trisha started selling work two years later, though it has changed dramatically over the years.

“It’s been a real journey for me, I started painting more realistic styles but I gradually moved into impressionistic work, I love Monet, and lately I’ve moved into more contemporary abstract work. I changed teachers a lot, I never really stayed with one more than six months because I like to experiment and I didn’t want to get moulded to a particular genreor style.”

Trisha’s latest shift into contemporary abstract work, which caught the attention of the Agora Gallery, is inspired by the Australian landscape and brought alive by the faces, dancers and animals that lie hidden in the colours.

“I don’t set out to paint them,” Trisha explains pointing to her paintings.

“I’ll be painting and I’ll say ‘oh I’ve got a face there’, she just appeared there, there’s people dancing in this one, she’s sleeping on the lake, there’s some little birds in this one.”

Trisha has travelled extensively around Australia and taken in its diverse landscape which she prefers to paint from her recollection.

“I paint from memory and try to recreate the sense of the place that has stayed with me in my mind. The Australian landscape is so diverse so there’s so much there.”

Trisha will travel to New York for the opening of her work at Agora Gallery on May 11 and is excited by the opportunity to sell her work to the world.

You can view Trisha’s work, including what will feature in the exhibition, at www.trishafitzpatrick.com.au