Patricia Lyons Stroud

Patricia Lyons Stroud Description

Using a vocabulary of simple, reductive forms to create abstract sculptures referencing elements of nature and structures found within the human body, Patricia Lyons Stroud has produced a body of work meticulously crafted from wood. Tending to work in series, Stroud will focus on a theme allowing the work itself to lead her on an investigation that concludes when the work no longer offers either interest or surprise. This focus may dwell on the conceptual idea of “bundles,” then “houses,” leading to “nests” and onto “patterns” or the use of “words” as sculptural form. Interlaced fingers, ribs, and spines emerge from blocks of wood –these are sculptures that are primal in their simplicity but present Stroud’s uncanny understanding of the complexity of three-dimensional form. Using nature as a touchstone, Stroud achieves a pureness of form that clearly reveals a piercing intellect. The titles of each work reflect both the truth and complexity of the concept that has been achieved through formal simplification and the Brancusi-like craftsmanship that earmarks Stroud’s oeuvre. 
Born in Liverpool, England, she and her family endured the World War II nightly bombings of that city by the Germans. Stroud studied at the Liverpool School of Art where she earned her diploma in 1945. After immigration to the United States, she attended the San Francisco Art Institute graduating with an MFA in 1985. Represented by Triangle Gallery of San Francisco since 1989, Stroud exhibited in one-person exhibitions regularly until its closure in 2011 and was the subject of frequent reviews by Kenneth Baker of the SF Chronicle and Artwork Magazine.