Patrick Villas is a contemporary Belgian born sculptor who is currently working in France. He studied drawing and painting at the School of Fine Arts of Antwerp. He is a self-taught sculptor, spending hours at the Antwerp Zoo to watch the cats. This same zoo that in 2002 commissioned a jaguar for its gardens. He is an animal sculptor in the tradition of Rembrandt Bugatti, he developed a varied bestiary but the most striking works are undoubtedly the big cats that he likes to observe at the Antwerp zoo. These are an opportunity for him to study the different feline postures, their movement and behavior.
He begins by working on the skeleton, building the internal frame of the feline so to clear the lines of force of the animal can then be seen. His technique has evolved in recent years to appear more abstract, by using more diverse materials. The artist remains at the boundary between abstraction and figuration. The pattern is present but less intelligible.
