We are pleased to host our Barboursville neighbor, area favorite, and fellow gallery owner
FRED NICHOLS
this winter!
Please join us in celebrating Fred's great eye and incredible skill at capturing Virginia's Nature & vistas,
and translating them (layer by layer by layer) into masterful hand-screened one-of-a-kind prints!
FRED NICHOLS
this winter!
Please join us in celebrating Fred's great eye and incredible skill at capturing Virginia's Nature & vistas,
and translating them (layer by layer by layer) into masterful hand-screened one-of-a-kind prints!
ARTIST STATEMENT:
The objective of my art is to recreate the natural world that surrounds and forms us. We are increasingly separate from nature, living more and more in a manmade and designed environment. Through my study of the wilderness, I hope to renew an interest and desire not only to protect, but also appreciate, the natural world.
My work is concerned with beauty and the picturesque landscape: the clear, blue day that warms the soul; the waterfall that flows with sound and movement; the peacefulness of an afternoon stream; the colors of a tree changing seasons. The challenge is to present these experiences in a way that engages the viewer. The artists who have most influenced my work are the great American landscape painters of the 19th Century, the European Impressionists, and the landscape painters of China and Japan.
My method is to go into the wilderness and photograph, returning to the studio to paint. Working with the photograph allows me to capture a place, one moment in time, one season at a time. The photograph is the starting point of a search for a new reality. I take apart the photograph and reassemble it in a painterly manner, and a new landscape evolves. I project slides on the canvas, and paint as though I am looking through a window. This window allows me to constantly view and experience what I am painting. It also serves as a reminder of the atmosphere that I have witnessed, its sounds and its smells.
Printmaking has always been a special medium to me. I have been fascinated by the qualities and the possibilities inherent in the various printmaking processes, and the ability to make multiples of an image. Early in my career I was exposed to relief printing, particularly woodcuts. Although now I do more silk screens, the two mediums have much in common. Silk screens allow a painterly approach to printing, along with a rich color unobtainable in any other process. My approach to printmaking has not been to reproduce a painting, but to recreate the image in a new and exciting medium.
I want my art to be positive and uplifting. I want it to wake people up to the natural world around them. I want it to give them a respite from the stresses of everyday life.
FRED NICHOLS, Barboursville, VA
