Complementary Colours

Since October 2008, I have had the pleasure of co-ordinating the exhibitions within the incubator, MerseyBIO. I hope to continue to bring you an interesting and varied calendar of exhibitions throughout the next few months. This is the first exhibition where we have had a particpant from one of the companies housed within the building. I am pleased to combine Patrick’s microscopic images with Christine’s layered textile work in this, our inaugural exhibition for 2011.





Dr Patrick Druggan is Director of R&D for Provexis PLC based in MerseyBIO, who specialize in the discovery, development and licensing of functional food, medical food and dietary supplement technologies.

These images were captured twenty years ago when Patrick first worked in diagnostic microbiology and was investigating impurities in crystal violet.






“The United Nations have declared 2011 to be the Year of Chemistry. The origins of the modern world can be traced back to William Perkin’s accidental synthesis of Mauvine in 1856. This first commercially available synthetic dye caused a technological and social revolution. It spawned the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. Within fifteen years of Perkin’s pioneering work in chemical synthesis and commercial exploitation of the products he made, the artistic movement Impressionism had been born. Its radical use of light and colour was made possible by synthetic chemistry. Painters like Monet, Pissaro, Cezanne, van Gogh and Gauguin exploited the brilliance of the new light stable synthetic paints, and modern art was born. You can still buy the same paint they used to this day.”
Patrick Druggan 2011

More later about Christine's work