College of Optometrists

28 June 2012 Return to news listings

From mid-February to mid-May 2012 Patrice Moor was artist-in-residence at the College museum and has produced three brand new works inspired by the collections. These works are being shown at the College from 9 July-21 December 2012. The works will be available for sale at the conclusion of the exhibition.

Patrice Moor writes: "Having the opportunity to work at British Optical Association Museum for the last three months has been an enriching experience for my work. The museum is a treasure trove of evocative objects, and all of them have their stories. The most challenging part of the residency was choosing, from the myriad of ideas of paintings I had, which one I was going to pursue.

I decided early on to do a painting of Neil Handley's hand, as I felt that his connection and input in the museum was very strong. He is an integral part of the museum. So the first painting I painted was The Curator's Hand. 

My long-standing interest in skulls drew me to the one skull in the collection and I chose to concentrate on the eye socket with its plastic eye, this painting is entitled The Beholder's Eye.

Finally I was drawn to a small old box of wooden painted retinas, showing various diseases.  I chose to loosely interpret eleven of those and the result is Line of Vision".