Near & Far exhibition brings Nick and Jill to Chichester
Art Near & Far offers a new exhibition at Chichester’s Oxmarket Gallery running from Tuesday, September 24 to Sunday, October 6, featuring the work of Nick Hais and Jill Mirza from Swanage in Dorset.
The title Near & Far indicates loosely the different approaches the artists have to their work. Nick mainly focuses on details and closeup analysis of his subject matter, exploring abstract elements and producing highly controlled and structured paintings, very often based on everyday objects such as chairs and tables and cast shadows. Jill’s paintings tend to have a more overall view, arranging the elements of her paintings almost like stage sets – highly figurative, very often almost narrative, like visual diaries.
While often relating to what they see in their home town, they travel as much as they can in Europe, particularly in Greece and France. Their inspiration comes from similar subject matter, but their approaches are very different. However, as Nick says, they both respond to clarity and the brilliance of light and colour found in the Mediterranean and by the sea in Dorset. Nick said: “The theme of this exhibition – figuration as a vehicle for colour and shape compositions – may sound daunting, but these paintings are not without humour.”
Having studied at art college in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Nick and Jill have both worked as professional painters for more than fifty years. As well as being an art teacher Jill ran a studio and art gallery in Swanage, with Nick for many years.
Over the years they have both sold their work through art galleries and art fairs
They have also often been commissioned to create specific paintings. Nick worked for over a year on a commission for a cruise ship restaurant. Their work has appeared in several publications and together they wrote a book called Mix Your Own Acrylics, which sold well, mostly based on the experience they have of colour mixing.
Jill said: “I have spent my life being involved in the making of paintings and drawings both as a practitioner and as a teacher.
“I studied painting at Camberwell School of Art and at The Royal Academy Schools. I was trained in a very traditional ethos, taught to observe carefully and to respond to the wonder of visual subtleties.
“That training has stayed with me always. I am compelled to look intently and record what I see. There is also, inevitably, a narrative concern and a wish to make observations about how man relates to the world around him and to the world he has created.
“My paintings are a figurative exploration of my immediate surroundings and of images I record when travelling, mostly in countries surrounding the Mediterranean. Responding to the excitement of the visual world, the play of light on buildings, the intensity of shadows, the brash colours of man-made objects and the way figures integrate with their surroundings, I produce paintings in which colour is a major factor.
“I follow themes and my paintings are grouped according to a particular interest at the time. I usually work in acrylic but also produce drawings using water colour pencils.”
Nick’s artistic career began when he graduated from Newcastle Polytechnic with a first class Dip A D in 1971. For four years he taught part-time on the fine art degree course at Newcastle. Since 1976 Nick has been a full-time painter.
“I enjoy the brilliance of rich and vibrant light which, when reflected, creates living shadows. I use this quality as it relates to objects and scenes that display inherent geometries, such as buildings, boats, tables and chairs. These subject matters provide the opportunity to utilise formal visual elements of line, shape and colour in combination.”