There will be 40 paintings in the exhibition, oils on canvas in varying sizes. All the pictures are recent paintings of Dorset’s coastal and landscape scenery covering the different seasons. Prices range from £2,500 to £10,000. Nicholas has taken the title for this exhibition from a quotation from Thomas Hardy’s 1912 preface to ‘Far from the Madding Crowd’ where Hardy described his fictitious Wessex as ‘A partly real, partly dream country’.
“I spend much of my time wandering around the Dorset countryside with my sketchbook” says Nicholas. “I am always looking for a composition in the landscape that captures something of the way that I feel about a particular place. These moments are often quite fleeting. I might see some deer running through a wood, a passing falcon, or I might stop to watch the sinking winter sun. These are moments that sometimes only last for a few seconds but leave a lasting impression. It is the resonance of these fleeting moments that I want to capture in my paintings”.
Nicholas goes on to say “I have strolled down chalky cliff paths, along the riverbanks and through the shady woods at different times of the year. I am usually accompanied on these excursions by my two lurchers, Olive and Martha. They sit down resignedly as I take out my pencils and sketchbook. When I have gathered enough information from sketches, photographs and notes, I take it all back to my studio. I start to make the first few brush strokes, that I hope will eventually evolve into a painting that will relive those moments in the dreamy Dorset landscape”.
Born in 1955, Nicholas studied at St Martin’s School of Art and Bristol Polytechnic. Since his first one-man exhibition in 1984 he has held numerous exhibitions in London, Dublin and Hong Kong.
The exhibition will be accompanied by an illustrated colour catalogue and can be viewed at www.jerramgallery.com from the beginning of November.
Further information & high res jpeg images are available from IONA PR, 07721 030 825 or [email protected]