The Artist
Nathan Birchenough
was born in 1985 and has lived in Buxton in Derbyshire since
1997, when he moved there from Merseyside. He recently finished
his A-Levels at Buxton Community School and is now studying
at Chesterfield College. His work has been featured in several
exhibitions at his school and at Buxton Museum & Art Gallery,
and his first solo exhibition of paintings begins in January
2004 at the same venue.
Most of
his work so far is inspired by Buxton and the countryside of
Derbyshire, and by the urban and industrial landscapes of Merseyside.
He called his exhibition "Wilderness" because
of the frequently bleak images he produced, representative of
the natural and man-made wildernesses of our planet and symbolic
of both humanity's constant consumption of natural resources,
and of our separation as individuals.
Despite
their bleakness, he believes that even the most industrialised
landscapes have their own beauty and can be seen in the same
way as traditional pastoral scenes, especially his view of the
rarely-seen industrial side of Buxton, "Buxton at Night
II" and a series of paintings of oil refineries. In
some of the works such as "Forest" (not shown
here), and the oil refinery series he explores the concept of
cities and industrial complexes as organisms in their own right,
their shapes determined by their need to consume natural resources,
in the same way that forests or patches of algae grow. In this
way humanity can be seen as an extension of nature, part of
it rather than engaged in a battle with it.
This theme
of shapes governed by laws of nature runs through most of his
paintings; he created the smoky patterns of "Forest"
by holding a burning torch beneath the canvas, which allowed
him to form an image by natural means which he had little control
over. He allowed the paint run on many canvasses for the same
reason - the act of painting becomes a natural process.
All paintings
are for sale - prices are negotiable.
Nathan will also take commissions for portrait work (from photos
or from life). Charges are £25 for an A4 pencil drawing,
£70 for an A4 - size painting.
Nathan Birchenough
can be contacted by:
- Telephone:
01298-77752
- Mobile:
0771 936 3203
- Email
here.
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