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.
