Currently based and practicing in the Clarence Valley region of NSW, Patrick Oates was born in Mackay, central Queensland, painting from as early an age as he can remember. Since completing a diploma of visual artist at Southbank Institute of Technology in 2013, Oates has exhibited with emerging and established galleries across the eastern states of Australia developing a rich and evocative body of work marrying contemporary landscape with whimsical figurative form.

With this innate curiosity and an experimental approach with paint Oates translates internal landscapes onto canvas, exploring inter generational trauma, queer identity and thought provoking escapism. Oates mines the terrain of family folklore, his current work evokes nostalgia and has an investigative approach into the identity of family figures that he has never met and places he has never been. Weaving a connection out of assumption, Patrick is developing a family portrait full of strangers that he is getting to know.