nigel sharman
oil on canvas
Nigel is a highly collectable oil painter whose work focuses on coastal imagery and objects of everyday life. Using the basic elements of line, colour and composition, he strives to make work that is at once deceptively simple and very sophisticated, which can be looked at each day whilst offering the viewer something different every time
​
Nigel studied at the University of Brighton and since leaving college in the mid 80’s, has worked across several design fields in both the UK and New York
​
While his formal artistic education took place in Brighton, he puts his real education down to ‘being dragged’ by his father round the galleries of West Penwith in Cornwall. There, he was introduced to work by Alfred Wallis and Ben Nicholson. Whilst he currently lives and works in London, Nigel’s roots are firmly in the South West of England, where the landscape and culture still influence his work
​
Nigel uses oil paint on canvas and has particular concern for colour and composition. He paints semi-figuratively and starts from a source such as a landscape, a harbour, boats, a still life or a nude. Nigel is fascinated by the beauty of ordinary everyday objects and often arranges compositions of great simplicity. Through his careful placement and attention to colour relationships, he seeks to create a feeling of calm
​
Nigel works with a limited palette of often muted colours which are built up over layers. Harbours represent both places of calm and sanctuary and the beginning of a journey – their ‘mouths’ beckon to the outside unknown. He sometimes depicts figures in semi-abstract coastal settings, often represented by horizontal colour blocking. The flattened and simplified figures are either reclining on a beach or by the water’s edge
​
