PATTERN BOOK
The jewel-like paintings of Kate Montgomery will be presented in a new exhibition, Pattern Book, at Long & Ryle Gallery, London on the 30 June – 27 July 2023.
Pattern Book refers to the well-thumbed collection of pattern design books piled up on Montgomery's studio floor. From Owen Jones’ Grammar of Ornament to Eugene Grasset’s La Plante et ses Applications Ornemantales. Versions of these patterned worlds of stylised plant forms and codified people find their way into her paintings through gardens, textiles and wallpaper.
Image: Kate Montgomery, Autumn Equinox, 2023, 60 x 47cm. Image above: Kate Montgomery, Picture, 2023, Window, 30 x 37cm.
Her paintings are a look behind the curtains, private moments and domestic quiet and recall the interiors and gardens of seaside holiday houses from her childhood and in Brighton and Hove today. Childhood features strongly with many paintings depicting a parlour game or a mysterious scene from imaginative play. There is a suggestion of interior spaces associated with female responsibility, creativity and desire – silent houses with children outside, workrooms, a costume gallery.
We spoke to Montgomery to find out more about Pattern Books.
How did you come to own the pattern design books?
My collection of pattern books started when I was a student with a second hand copy of Owen Jones’ The Grammar of Ornament. Current favourites include The V&A ‘s 'Tile Book and Dover Books’ Grasset’s Flower and Plant Designs.
Image: Kate Montgomery, Roof Top, 2023, 60 x 47cm.
Why did you study Islamic patterns?
In my second year at The Ruskin, St John’s College Oxford gave me a travel bursary which I used to partly fund trips to Bruges and Marrakesh, both places and countries have remained powerful in my visual memory, imagination and practice.
I studied under Professor Keith Critchlow and Paul Marchant at The Royal College of Art. It was very different to previous Fine art education I had experienced. We had geometry and biomorphic drawing lessons and then were largely left to integrate the constructed pattern work into our own practices. My use of pattern and colour became very influenced by Moghul miniature painting, and their mixed perspectival systems chimed with the International Gothic painting and flat patterning I have always enjoyed. 
Image: Kate Montgomery, Sister's Blue Dress, 2023, 60 x 47cm.
How do you interpret these designs and styles into your paintings?
My work uses combinations of patterns to deflect narrative and suggest past domestic histories. The paintings are small and the act of painting patterns is almost equivalent to stitching.
I keep tracings of my versions of designs I find in books or museums .– working with the uncertainty of pattern and colour relationships using paint is compulsively challenging.
Pattern Book is on show at Long & Ryle Gallery from 30 June - 27 July 2023. Find out more on their website: longandryle.com