A Walk in The Woods with Nigel Downing

 A career in education culminating in Head of Art at Churchill College, didn’t prevent Nigel being an exhibiting artist as well.His school teaching background was apparent as he maintained a relaxed and easy manner despite having to talk and paint and in difficult conditions at our meeting last night.

In daytime Nigel loves to make his work en plain air, settled down among the trees capturing on A4 paper a direct response to the environment around him. He then sometimes works it up in the studio to a larger size whilst striving maintain the spontaneity .

He began by working freely, using gouache, on a brush, then using inktense pencils, acrylic inks, even oil pastels, to enrich the surface, aiming to create a sense of space with many and varied textures. Starting with the lighter tones and working to darks, he explained how he avoids the” sweet “greens by adding a touch of complimentary colour (red). As the layers built he moved toward finer details in the marks with smaller brushes, painting negative space of sky in acrylic paint along with any lighter elements. The lower foreground was kept loose and dark to encourage the eye up into the high canopy.

In the break we could examine other finished work, and also his materials.In true school teacher style, fairly frugal equipment, just an upturned box lid for a pallet, and well used pencils and crayons obviously with nothing going to waste!