Description

Nicholas Blowers
2013.
Print

53cm x 42cm.

About the insect work -

These delicate works are from Blowers exhibition Ephemera. Although extremely detailed in their realism, they go beyond mere representation. The mood is haunting as we are reminded of the fragility of life. The series includes dying plants in various stages of decay, as well as grasshoppers and moths lying on their backs as they have fallen. These normally small, fast-moving creatures have become immobile, taut, frozen in death potent symbols of mortality. Some are solitary images while others are groups of dead insects.

Scientific classification and references to early botanical drawings before the invention of the camera come to mind. But what is overwhelming is the art works beauty and the sensitive line work and delicate tone. The fine lines are created by scraping through the oil paint. By limiting the colour to earthy browns, the viewer is more aware of the structure and texture of the different parts of the insects. We admire Blowers level of observation as he records minute details of the environment. Other series of works by Blowers include close focus on landscapes, such as details of fallen trees as they decay on the forest floor, providing further evidence that Blowers concern is death and decay in the natural world.


About the artist

Nicholas Blowers was born in Essex, UK in 1972. He obtained his Bachelor of Fine Art at Southampton university between 1991 1994.

His realist paintings celebrate collapse and decay within the natural environment with a focus on anomalies in the landscape - places out of place such as mine tailings ponds, drowned forests and Edgelands. Blower's compositions depict dense arrangements of nature and there is often an unruliness and sense of melancholy in his painting.

There is a busy, chaotic feel to his work; a world of debris and clutter that one often finds in the Australian landscape. Blowers searches for places that have a heightened sense of drama and is interested in certain subjects because of their unruliness and anarchic structural elements. As a painter the subjects primary meaning lies in paint, so his interest in decay and decrepitude is first and foremost painterly; its about form, texture, pattern and the connectedness of things.

His first solo show was held at the Dickerson gallery in Sydney in 2005 and since then he has had solo exhibitions in Sydney, Melbourne , Hobart and the UK. His work has been included in mixed exhibitions and art prizes in Australia and abroad including recently at the Wynne prize & S H Ervin gallery.

Blower's work is held in corporate and private collections in Australia and abroad. He has been featured in articles in the guardian and most recently the weekend Age.

He lives and works in Hobart.

http://nicholasblowers.com/about

http://nicholasblowers.com/work

Additional Information

The winning bidder will be invoiced upon close of the auction. Items will be available for collection from the Landcare Tasmania office (Hobart CBD) after payment is received. Delivery can be arranged with costs to be paid by the winning bidder.

Auction close: 8pm Monday 29th May, Australian Eastern Standard Time