Moray Gallery

Francis Nicholls: First Impressions II

2-22 November 2019

First Impressions II showcases a selection of my recent oil paintings, both plein air (outdoors) and studio.

Over the past year I’ve been on several painting trips to Alexandra, Bluff and Nelson. This has in turn provided a lot of material and inspiration for studio paintings.

My plein air pictures for the show are on small 6 x 8-inch panels – a format I paint a lot of. They’re like little postcard cameos and can be nice mementos to come back with from a painting trip.

As always, my studio work can vary in degree of abstraction and are not always of specific places. They’re often a distillation of ideas. I like to revisit the same theme to see what sort of variations I can come up with.

I use palette knives (mainly) and like to explore the colour, textural and mark-making aspects of applying thick paint. I’m interested in capturing a certain feeling or moment in time (an impression) as opposed to accurately depicting a scene. 

Link to review: Art Seen ODT 7 November 2019