Carly Jaye Patrick: The Former Criminal Lawyer-Turned-Artist

Growing up with a history-loving Survey Draftsman for a father with a passion for Blues music, and a Bohemian-loving mother who named her daughter after “Carly Simon,” Carly Jaye has been exposed to the arts for as long as she can remember. Music and an appreciation of the arts, especially books, were taught to be sacred.

“It was my escape from the real world. Somewhere in my mind I could create something, either an image or a scene with wondrous colour that was complete fiction. It didn’t have to make sense; it was art and my own personal uplifting journey,” Carly Jaye says of her first memories of delving into the drawing and painting medium.

With a unique eye for colour and producing mainly portrait work with an expressionist and emotional vibe, Carly Jaye often creates work symbolising the many “faces of art and pain.”

Nowhere is that vision truer than in Cherokee, a surreal expression of strength and grief, pulled together with an almost Fish Eye lens effect and pops of lime green in Carly’s trademark soulful eyes. With bold black strokes holding the woman’s colours in place, the subject defies the audience to tell her she’s “just a painting.” It’s humanity pushed through the dreamscape.

Carly Jaye says “art allows me the unique opportunity to be creative every day. I have found my niche, my calling, and I love what I do and am passionate about it.”

Part inquisitive owl eyes, part Amy Winehouse desperation hair, and part porcelain doll, Goodbye’s shrugged shoulders and long lashes asks the audience to stay awhile. The portrait plays with perspective, both in proportion, but also in expression. Is she saying, ‘goodbye’ or daring the audience to remain? Is she sad, upset, or about to break into a smirk? We could spend hours trying to figure it out.

Carly Jaye Patrick is a Professional Artist from Southern Sydney, self-taught, encompassing natural talent, passion, and dedication.

She proclaims her unique artistic expression predominantly through chalk pastel, employing bold colours with dark tones and emotive portrayals in an intense manner.

An example of Patrick’s masterful use of dark tones and bold colours, Clementine 2 is a portrait of a woman surrounded by totems to the many facets of self that Carly has placed in her fishbowl eyes. A sword at her hip, to match the steely cat-wing eyelids. A fan in the foreground to mirror the coy look over her shoulder. Two red flowers in her hair bringing out the determination in her dark eyes.

Carly Jaye began her professional art career in earnest as an emerging artist in 2013 after transitioning from a career as a criminal lawyer. She has since been exhibited at the Port Art Exhibition in South Australia and has a developing list of private collectors.

Carly’s biggest influences in art are Frida Kahlo and Brett Whiteley. She paints to music, which inspires her. What she’s listening to sways and influences her mood and transcribes on canvas. The deeply emotional vibe of the majority of her paintings can find their roots in her primary listening genre: blues folk rock. She analogises this process to live performance. No single live performance is ever the same, but for it to mean something, you have to feel it and connect with it in some way. “You get back what you give, as if the audience is a mirror,” Carly states.

Connect with Carly’s evocative dream portraits in both of her online galleries: Carly Jaye Patrick and her Bluethumb gallery.