about

Nigel Shipley is an artist living in Bristol.

For me, abstract painting is the challenge of letting go and pushing paint around until something emerges. Then stop, and recognize what the random marks have created and wait until until I am sure what the next move will be. My paintings involve as much time sitting around and thinking as time spent painting. Some of my paintings can take many months to finish. Something that excites me is when you can sense the energy in how the materials have been applied to a painting.

In a world preoccupied with technology, abstract painting connects us with our basic self expression. I am not interested in painting something that already exists. I try not to recreate an image. Instead, I may use it as a reference point from which to move on.

I am influenced by the Abstract Expressionists – for their dynamic brushwork and emotional rawness. By the Renaissance – for composition, light and movement. And by Japanese color theory.

Some things others have said about abstract painting…

• “If people would just look at the paintings, I don’t think they would have any trouble enjoying them. It’s like looking at a bed of flowers, you don’t tear your hair out over what it means.” ~ Jackson Pollock
• We live in an age when the traditional great subjects – the human form and the landscape – are daily devalued by commercial art. ~ Andy Warhol
• Abstract painting is like music and it has to separate from everyday reality. ~ Author: Irving Stone