Collector’s Desk on Living with Art: An interview with Patrick Dalton

Living with art could mean a myriad of things to different people. Particularly if your passion is collecting art, this could have very literal and symbolic meaning. Ahead of the fourth edition of Collector’s Desk, the Daily FT had the pleasure of speaking to Patrick Dalton, an ardent collector of Sri Lankan contemporary art based in Singapore, about his love of art and expanding art collection.

Patrick will be in Colombo today (3 March) as a part of the fourth edition of Collector’s Desk, organised by ARTRA Magazine and Saskia Fernando Gallery in collaboration with The Residences at One Galle Face, Shangrila Hotel & Resorts. 

Collector’s Desk is a series of curated art events that takes place in the form of quarterly art talks, panels, tours and presentations by eminent international and local professionals in the field of art. The event, which is invitee only, caters to an audience interested in impacting the growth of the local art scene. 

Exploring the theme of Living with Art, this latest edition of Collector’s Desk to be held at Paradise Road Tintagel, will feature a conversation with Patrick on his journey as an art collector and property developer, a tour of the Paradise Road Tintagel Colombo Art Collection with Azara Jaleel and Saskia Fernando, an exhibition of Khiards Fine Jewellery, and curated wine from Grape Expectations by Favourites International. 

Patrick, who enjoys visiting new countries and exploring new cultures, first came to Sri Lanka in 2010. Patrick recalls that “Sri Lanka held little interest initially other than wanting to ‘cross it off’ my list of places in Asia I had not visited back in 2010”. However it was this very lack of any ‘defined expectations’ and little knowledge of the place that would soon became the best part about discovering the country.

Patrick—who headed to Sri Lanka for a mere few days to celebrate his birthday at a nice hotel, sightsee and “head home with some nice memories and a few photos” —says he never expected to “fall in love with the country and return a month later to buy a tea plantation!”

Today Patrick and his partner’s home on their tea estate, Wild Buffalo Hill, near Weligama displays part of their growing collection of Sri Lankan art and was featured in the New York Times in 2015. Following are the excerpts from the interview:

Q: What sparked your interest in collecting art?

A: One of my closest friends at school went on to study fine art at the University of Tasmania whilst I went to work for a boring insurance company. I loved visiting her studio at the university and feeling part of the “art scene” and, in a way, I felt it was something I wish I had pursued myself. I didn’t set out to collect art per se, but it was something that evolved over many years and only when we had some disposable income to spend. I call it more art hoarding than collecting. It’s the difference between knowing what you’re doing and not! For many years, we bought prints and posters to decorate our homes and collected what worked for the walls we had spare. There is still an element of that, but we have more walls now and can afford more original pieces, albeit not from old masters!

Q: What was your first artwork purchased?

A: The very first piece of “art” I purchased was in 1993 during a visit to Adelaide and I bought a limited edition hand coloured cartoon cell of “Bugs Bunny” signed by the now deceased Warner Brothers’ Director, Chuck Jones. Sadly, I left Australia soon after this purchase and left the piece with a friend who looked after it until I was finally able to hang it in our home in London some 10 years later. It’s now always on my office wall … a reminder of being young and silly.

Q: As an art collector, what draws you and sparks your curiosity in a work of art?

A: It probably sounds cliché, but the piece needs to speak to me! Not literally of course, but in some way I need to connect with the piece. Sometimes it’s as simple as an appealing, vibrant colour scheme or interesting scene, but other times it’s about precision artistry, texture, modality or scale. Often it’s a thought of “Wow! How did they do that?”. Our tastes are eclectic and our collection is not always coherent so sometimes we have a lot of weird stuff that might not appeal to others. To me art isn’t just about painting or sculpture but about architecture, furniture and industrial design. One of my favourite “pieces” is a 10-year-old Bang & Olufsen television which has the most beautiful, elegant design and precision crafting plus pure sound quality. Its sits perfectly in any room. This to me is also art.

Q: You are also a property developer. Does this complement and feed into your interest in art?

A: Initially no, the projects we became interested in didn’t necessarily complement art as such, but over time I have started thinking more and more about how art can help make a development or a project more interesting, whether it’s sculptural art or architectural art forms or a space for a gallery of ever-changing works. Any place can be a gallery.

We were very fortunate, when starting to collect, to talk to Saskia Fernando, her father Shanth and also some of her well-informed gallery staff who helped me to understand the different artists, their backgrounds and the basis of their works. There was a large portfolio of works exploring conflict and war but also peace and reconciliation and some of these works are very moving. Of course, the abundant use of vivid colour, texture and material is a terrific reflection of the gorgeous scenery of Sri Lanka and has made collecting all the more rewarding, fun and interesting.

Q: Any favourite local contemporary artists and works of art?

A: The first time I stepped into Saskia Fernando’s pop-up gallery in Galle Fort I saw a piece I fell in love with, a nearly life-sized buffalo made from scrap parts of a car engine. It was not just the novelty of the piece but the way the artist, Prageeth Manohansa, had carefully selected the parts to mirror the anatomy of the animal. This was not just some kind of “craftsman” but someone who really loved what he was doing, what he was creating. We bought the piece immediately, mostly because it was fate since our tea estate is very oddly named “Wild Buffalo Hill”. Prageeth remains one of my favourites because his pieces are fun and are the basis of our “Zoo Garden” at the estate. I very much admire the work of Vajira Gunawardena, Ruwan Prasanna and Sanjeewa Kumari but with pieces now from 16 artists I feel an infinity for many of them for different reasons.

Q: How does the contemporary Sri Lankan art scene compare to other countries/markets?

A: There is a lot of youth represented in the contemporary scene in Sri Lanka and this makes for great social commentary and vibrancy but there have been times when the overshadowing spectre of conflict and war seemed to dominate some of the contemporary works. As a collector, this is interesting but then again, I don’t wish to fill my home with art works reflecting conflict. After all, living with art means looking at art and enjoying it at work or at home. The Chinese, for instance, feel it’s not good luck to have such pieces where you live and work and there is something to be said for that. This doesn’t mean that I disrespect the works or discount the pain that led to some beautiful pieces, but in totality it’s difficult to be constantly reminded of a cruel past. We have collected art from France, Singapore, Australia, UK, China, Vietnam, Brazil, USA, India, Bali, Cambodia and now Sri Lanka. All the markets have interesting and varied pieces but many of these markets, particularly Vietnam, China and Australia are now very expensive and in some cases gratuitously inflated which does help to keep our collecting habits to a minimum!

Q: Finally, what does living with art mean to you?

A: This is a great question! For me it means living with choices. Every day we are bombarded with imagery but it’s the images that we have gone to the effort of seeking out and spending money on which cover our walls and decorate our home. We recently moved to a “Shophouse” in Singapore, essentially a long narrow town house on three levels with only a handful of windows looking to the outside. We exchanged a panoramic ocean view in our last home with 360 degree views of our own walls so there is nothing better than bringing our collection to life in this house. Instead of sitting in a room and looking out the window, I can stare at artworks we have bought, reminisce about their acquisition, marvel at some new detail the light shows. Some people may think this is showing off but art is about enjoying what you see, sharing it with friends and allowing the choices we have made to create conversation, stimulate opinion and perhaps garner a few smiles. Anything else and it might as well be wallpaper.