Nina inspires you to capture moments from local walks and bring them to your paintings over 50 minutes of high quality video.
I have a travelling studio – an easel, set of pastels and a flask of coffee and I’m happy. I’ll draw in an open field or warm cosy studio but love the bustle of people and the conversations they bring. I’ve enjoyed working at local events with my work displayed and working on a recent commission whilst people potter and chat. I’m well known for portraits of people’s pets, for me, it’s all about capturing a personality, creating something that looks real. With everything I paint I want the viewer to feel they can walk in or my subject is just about to jump out!
I studied illustration at Falmouth College of Arts and started working as an illustrator 30 years ago. It has now developed into a range of commission-based work, recently including beautiful family homes, prize winning cattle and pets and family pastel portraits. I regularly demonstrate my pastel painting at Art Groups and have also been invited to be Artist in Residence at local Events and Shows. I was invited to work alongside The Kings Troop, where I created artwork and studies of the beautiful horses and ‘behind the scenes’ studies. My work has been exhibited in Dorset and London and generous collectors mean that my work hangs in homes worldwide.
I have two styles one lending itself to the details required for animal portraits and one looser for the seascapes that I enjoy capturing. My popular pastel classes developed from peoples interest in the way I worked, what started as a small group has grown into a regular class and, more recently, online workshops and live demonstrations. My love of the sea and sailing has inspired seascapes which Unison pastel are perfect for. I’ve developed a way of working where I create a painting, liquifying the pastels with alcohol to create a surface to layer pastels on top of. You can see how these develop on my Youtube Channel.
For most of my life I assumed art was not for me, obviously I tried it at school, but I was never that good.
Like most of us, these last few months have meant lots of changes to the way I work. One of my unexpected confessions is that
Home schooling is tough, so having an opportunity to take my 16 year-old daughter away from her screen to do something creative wasn’t a hard sell!
It’s fair to say that my artistic endeavours have been in a state of deep hibernation for more than a year so when my friend suggested doing this challenge with her, I thought maybe this is what I need.
I am so glad I did this challenge, and I would urge anyone, however nervous to sign up to any future ones, I certainly will.
In May we held a recruitment exercise for new Associate Artists and we were overwhelmed with the number of applications. So much so we will have 2 groups of new artists. Our 2nd group will be announced in August 2020.
Got a question?
Or give us a call on +44 (0)1434 240203 and choose option 1, for Liz.
For trade enquiries, please contact us as below:
liz@unisoncolour.com or call Liz on +44 (0)1434 240203 Option 1