The Artist Magazine, Sept 2024
Capturing life in paint
Caroline Saunders talks to Nick Grove, winner of The Artist Award at the Royal Society of Marine Artists exhibition, about adopting the sight-size technique in his urban impressionist oil paintings
Delighted to have won The Artist Award at the Royal Society of Marine Artists (RSMA) exhibition, Nick Grove’s winning painting Bright Light, right, captured the effect of the afternoon light at his favourite place to stay at Burnham Overy Staithe in north Norfolk. Nick’s largely instinctive creations are produced as quickly as possible, as he reacts to the live scene in front of him. He finds the process of applying oil paint, making a judgment and for tutoring: www.nickgrove-artworks.co.uk/tutoringand adjusting, so liberating, rather than attempting to get it right first time, every time. ‘Making mistakes is part of the fun and I would encourage any artist not to be afraid of making mistakes because without them there will not be progress.’ His painting collections include: London; Cambridge; Suffolk; New York; and Hong Kong. This year he plans on expanding his portfolio by travelling to York, Brighton and Scotland.
Joining the RSMA in 2023 has showcased his work and provided introductions to other artists. ‘It can be an isolating profession at times, so to be able to meet and talk with other artists has given me a sense of community and support. The encouragement I have received from members has been heartwarming; they are a generous bunch and I look forward to exhibiting in the annual exhibition again this year.’
Art was Nick’s favourite subject at school. He has always had a deep connection to it. ‘My grandparents on my mother’s side were very creative and my father painted when he was young, so some of it must have rubbed off on me.’ Although largely self-taught, Nick previously worked as a freelance photographer in London before establishing a photography and video media business. This is where he started to find an interest for different scenes. He often adopts the contre-jour technique used by photographers, capturing a subject directly towards the centre of light. ‘I naturally use the camera in my work. It’s a valuable tool if used correctly. It’s important to understand the limitations of the camera and to be able to override these to capture a truer image of how we really see things with our eyes.
Bright Light, Burnham Overy Staithe, oil on board, 18x24in (45x60cm)
‘This is one of my favourite sleepover destinations when painting the north Norfolk coast and you can see my trusty VW campervan, Uma, parked up in this painting. I was struck by the high-key light effect created by bright skies and the wet road. I like to set out my lightest light and darkest dark early on. The reflection off the water was brightest of all so I used that to set the lightest light in the painting and then worked out the values of the sky and road respectively. My darkest dark was underneath the boats closest to me but wasn’t particularly dark so I had to be careful to pitch it correctly to help judge the mid-values. By softening the edges on distant hills and leaving the foreground sharper I created a sense of aerial perspective and increased this effect by leaving the foreground colours chromatically stronger too. Note that colours are generally more muted when painting contre-jour as well.’
Scudamore’s at Magdalene Bridge, Cambridge, oil on board, 10x12in (25.5×30.5cm)
‘Cambridge is a stone’s throw away from home so I pop over to brush up on my plein-air painting skills when possible. This painting was created one autumn afternoon on a bright but cold day in October. I started, as usual, by mapping out the scene using raw umber and a little Gamsol odourless mineral spirit with a small long-handled filbert brush. The path on my left matched the ground of the board perfectly so that was my natural way to block in the rest of the painting with areas of muted colour and tone. The distant college buildings were blue-ish in comparison to the nearer bridge and buildings with their orange tint. This defined my colour palette to: cerulean blue; raw sienna; and titanium white. Once I’d blocked in the painting, I moved on to objects of interest and defining details that made the scene. I usually work left to right so I’m not smudging the previous layer. I used cadmium colours for the figures and nearer objects of interest and finished the painting off with a few accents and highlights.’
A camera is great at recording all the facts of a scene, such as how many windows are in a building, and as a tool for composing a painting, allowing us to take many pictures as variations. However, the camera does not capture the true hue, tone, or even perspective of a scene. It’s so important to make those key judgments by direct observation from life.’
Impressionist style
Nick’s direct, impressionistic style has emerged by consequence of working en plein air, also encouraged by a smaller painting size. ‘Two really good benefits of painting on location are that it adds a degree of time pressure, which prompts working at speed, thus more instinctively. Secondly, the act of painting from life naturally forces your observation and judgements to have intent, which is a totally different experience to working from a two-dimensional image on a screen, and results in more accomplished paintings.’ Nick’s landscapes are generally composed by working in the field with his trusty camera and deciding on a spot where he can paint the scene using the sight-size measuring technique. This method of drawing enables great accuracy and detail and reflects objects on a one-to-one scale exactly as it appears to the artist. ‘A lot of walking about and moving of the easel is necessary to get it in just the right spot but once you are there, you can rattle on with the rest of the drawing and double check it throughout the painting process.
‘The British weather is a good testing ground for any plein-air painter, as we literally can have four seasons in one day.’
Nick has found planning and preparation is key, and with the right equipment and clothing, he copes with most weathers. ‘Wind can be a real problem since it moves both you and your easel and makes it hard to put the paint where you want it. I carry foot and hand warmers, mittens, and a flask of hot coffee in the winter months, and sun cream and shades in the summer.’
Nick uses a French easel when painting outdoors and if he is visiting a location for a couple of days, he uses a trolley to transport his easel, several boards, and supplies for the trip. Nick loves the smell of paint and uses an odourless mineral spirit to avoid toxic fumes. It doesn’t matter to Nick when or where he paints as there is seldom a specific lighting condition he is looking for; however, he does particularly enjoy painting first thing in the morning, as soon as it is light enough.‘I am naturally a morning person and so to be out wandering the streets of London, or down on the c oast at first light gives me a special buzz.’ On painting trips he generally visits an area for a day or two and keeps the exact itinerary loose.‘Too much planning doesn’t really work out; you can turn up at a chosen location to find a particular building covered in scaffolding or the view obscured by roadworks. It’s much better to explore an area to find the next painting.’
‘The biggest influence on Nick’s painting process has to be Ken Howard’
Crisp Morning, Piccadilly, oil on canvas, 18x24in (46x61cm)
‘London is a constant source of inspiration for me and I’ve spent a lot of time painting there over the last three years. Capturing the architecture and scale of near and far objects gives me the opportunity to flex my drawing skills and play with interesting compositions. I nearly always use the sight-size method when painting en plein air as I did for this painting of Piccadilly on a crisp morning in January. It’s a bit of a hassle getting the easel in exactly the right spot but well worth it as it means you can zoom through the drawing stage of the painting and double check any measurement or angle at any time during the painting process. I was confronted with this wonderfully fresh view of Piccadilly Circus as soon as I’d exited my hotel just as the sun had come up, and so instantly decided to paint it. As the sun crept higher and higher I was careful to block in the tonal ranges just as the face of the Swan and Edgar building had both light and shadow on it. By the time I’d finished, the scene was full of figures scurrying off to work but I chose to stick with the first impression I’d experienced and kept it quiet.’
Midday Church of San Giorgio Maggiore, oil on board, 8x10in (20×25.5cm)
‘It is easy to see why Venice is such a draw for artists. The clarity of the light at any time of day is incredible. This painting was created at midday in blistering heat! As I only had my small pochade box with me I kept things simple by using a small board primed with a light ground and a limited selection of paints. In this painting I only used four paints: cerulean blue; raw sienna; raw umber; and titanium white. The light was very intense so I was careful to keep the chroma of my paints high, and because the scene is a simple one, getting the tones just right was important. Working very quickly I was careful to paint the architecture of the scene correctly in terms of scale and then worked in the sky and water together. A few moving parts such as the passing boats finished off the scene.’
The biggest influence on Nick’s painting process has to be Ken Howard. He has a collection of his books at home, which he continues to look through as well as rewatching his instructional art films. ‘I didn’t meet Ken in person, unfortunately, but his simple explanations of how to master tonal control have been a big stepping stone for me. In particular, how a tone cannot be correct on its own but rather it is the relationship to the surrounding tones that makes it work. Paint what you see and not what you know was beautifully illustrated by Ken as he painted a pole intersecting a horizon. We know that the pole is the same tone and colour vertically, but we see it as darker at the top against the brighter sky and lighter towards the bottom against the darker ground.
‘I don’t believe I am a particularly imaginative painter in that I don’t like to add or exaggerate anything in particular. I think I prefer keeping it as a true representation of the scene I’m painting.’ Nick likes to consider what it was about the scene that attracted him to stop and paint it in the first instance. He questions: is it the harmony of colours throughout? Is it the leading lines or composition? Is it the objects in the scene and the way the light is reacting to them? He draws upon these points and remembers them throughout the painting to help focus on ways of recreating the scene. By doing this it initiates a plan of action of how he can make the painting work for others as it has worked for him.
Painting process
Although following the same process for each painting, the journey each painting undergoes can be very different. He adopts a traditional method of creating the painting in four layers: drawing layer; underpainting layer; first painting stage; and second painting stage. In plein-air painting terms, these layers could be called: mapping-out layer; blocking-in layer; refining layer; and more refining and accents layer. Sometimes, especially if he is working on a small painting and time is of the essence, such as sunrise or sunset, he paints more directly and blends his layers together. He may draw, block in, and refine in a single layer of thicker paint.
‘I generally paint smaller paintings on boards and larger paintings on canvas and I use the sludge from the bottom of my paintbrush cleaner as a mid-tone ground. But the very first thing I do when starting a painting is to find something in the scene that tonally matches the board I’m painting on. That is my way into the tonal values of the painting.’
In order to mix any colour he requires, he uses an extended palette consisting of: Payne’s grey; French ultramarine blue; cerulean blue; alizarin crimson; cadmium red; raw umber; burnt sienna; raw sienna; viridian; sap green; cadmium orange hue; lemon yellow; flake white; and titanium white. Nick usually restricts the bulk of the painting to just a few colour groups. By painting what he sees, a lot of the decisions regarding colour are made for him. He likes, however, to look for what is creating the atmosphere in the painting and what combinations of colours are creating the harmonies, for example.
Nick stands at arm’s distance away from the canvas and uses long-handled filberts to draw out the composition. To block in, he uses the largest possible brushes and that is a general rule for all of his painting. As he progresses to the later layers of the painting, he uses smaller filberts and eventually moves to short-handled, smaller rounds for the details and accents. To finish a painting Nick normally applies a thin protective layer of low-gloss Dammar varnish.
The three dimensions of colour are one of Nick’s favourite subjects to teach and he believes they are the fundamentals of painting. ‘When understood and combined with solid drawing the result is an artist who is able to paint anything at all. This is so important because one must be able to render nature perfectly as we see it in all its subtlety and simplicity before one is able to deviate successfully from it.’
It was a surprise to Nick to discover that teaching was such a valuable experience – for the teacher as well as the student.
‘It has helped me continue to develop my drawing technique and solidify my process of painting because teaching somebody else is also a constant reminder to oneself. It is important to understand that you shouldn’t entirely control a painting into being; you have to let it have a life of its own.’
Magdalen College from the High Street, oil on board, 16x12in (40.5×30.5cm)
‘It was a dull and wet day in Oxford and I hadn’t gone far from the car before I had to take shelter under the awning of a local café. Fortunately, I was taken by the view towards Magdalen College so I ordered a coffee and selected a 16x12in (40.5×30.5cm) board to capture the scene. These size boards are my favourite to use as they are big enough to create a strong painting yet small enough to complete in one go. I chose to orientate this painting vertically so I could include both the wet pavements reflecting the brighter sky from above and the awning I was sheltering under. I wasn’t in the mood to hang around for hours so I decided to approach this painting with more freedom than usual and began blocking in areas with paint straight away. That way I could work wet into wet to help achieve the wet look and movement of the scene. In keeping with the scene, I used muted, dull colours with a great deal of grey, reserving my cadmium colours for the traffic lights to help them pop.’
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