Mair Patterson - Artist, Composer and Poet

Portrait and interview - 1994

To Mair, communication with people is the most important thing in life and it is from this concept that her inspiration evolves.  Through many years as a painter producing her own exhibitions annually of impressionistic work, landscapes and portraits, she began composing music in the late 70s, having learned the piano from childhood.  She soon realised her work affected those who heard it, but it was not until 1990 that she went into a friend’s recording studio and made her first album.  Her music is used in different parts of the country for therapy and massage and her present ambition is to compose music for films.  In the meantime, she has played in small concerts and has busked in Bath and Totnes to improve her confidence.

Alongside these two creative fields, poetry has begun to play an important role in her life, and she is hoping to get her first book published.  Both her music and poetry come totally from the heart and often, through bereavement of a friend, or the sheer joy of a meeting or a place, she will compose without thought, sometimes in a matter of minutes.

Passionate in all things, she loves train journeys, where she does a lot of writing.  Devon in spring, hot sun, sea, Spain, America, blue and turquoise, being barefoot, dinner by candlelight and being in the company of her many friends, the greatest of whom are her our children.

Both left-handed with a brush in her hand, and right-handed with a palette knife, she feels fortunate indeed to be able to pursue so many creative and evocative channels, to be inspired by loving all of life around her, and by her spiritual belief in seeing the perfection of everything just the way it is.

Mair has lived in or around Totnes for thirty years and with her increasing desire to travel far and wide, always finds it a special place with wonderful people to come back to.  She loves the town for its freedom of expression, its self-awareness, its spiritual consciousness and its people from many paths and places.

Update:  Not Known.