Patrick Tjangala Nolan was born in Alice Springs in 1976 and grew up in Papunya. After attending high school at Yirara College in Alice Springs he returned back to Papunya. His mother, Alice Nolan was a Warlpiri/Luritja woman from Pikilli country, West of Yuendumu. His father, Dinny Tjampitjinpa Nolan, a Warlpiri/Anmatyerre senior law man, was an important painter from Yuendumu, later painting for Papunya Tula Artists and touring around Australia and internationally. Dinny worked as a stockman before moving to Papunya where much of his family had settled. It was there that he started to paint for Papunya Tula in the 1970s. He was amongst some of the first artists to paint traditional sand drawings and body paintings on canvas alongside his brother, Kaapa Tjampitjimpa and his two cousins, Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri and Billy Stockman Tjapaltjarri. In 1981, in Sydney he famously created a ground painting: the first to be seen outside of the Central Desert.

Patrick remembers seeing his father painting when he was a young boy, becoming inspired to paint himself. He asked his father to teach him. He says he started painting on small canvas at the age of ten. He was travelling to Cairns and Townsville with his parents for ceremony and painting at the time. Patrick’s two younger brothers also paint in Alice Springs. Patrick has lived in Haasts Bluff with his wife, and fellow painter, Patricia Multra for the past ten years. He started painting at Ikuntji Artists in 2010. Patrick paints his father’s Tjukurrpa (Dreaming) from Warlukurlangu (Yuendumu) country.. Patrick often paints together with his wife and step-daughter (Virgillia Multa) in the studio. Patrick also carves spears and boomerangs from the native Mulga tree, which grow abundantly in the region.