To draw is to ‘draw from’, that is, to take something from, as in drawing water from a well. The well I draw from is simply the well of material life, and the water in my bucket is the visual appearance of the material things that surround us. My drawings draw from the shapes and tones of real things. My paintings draw from the shapes and colours of real things.
Painting in a style that honours real objects teaches the painter to look with great attention at the visual effects created by material things. This effort, to see and render as best one can the marvellous range, variation, and subtlety of visual appearances, brings one to a point where the world of seemingly ordinary things turns into something quite extraordinary. After that, painting becomes an explanation of, and also a homage to the astonishing material fact within which we live.
We human beings are soulful creatures, but our consciousness depends utterly on our having a material being in a material world. The object in painting is to honour the material, and in so doing to nourish the soul.
My studio is located at Dumfries in Dumfriesshire, Scotland.
Nicholas Spencer, 1st March 2023