nick esch

Nick Esch - Fine Artist

Following a more formal formal art training at Chelsea Art school and Heatherley's, I did an apprenticeship in restoration of fine painted antiques, in particular Chinese and Japanese lacquer, where I worked on pieces for the V&A and various top antique dealers. This is where the importance of the process and craft of painting became more important to me in my own work. Gradually I became more involved with Interiors, initially painting murals and then moving into design generally, and ran my own interior design company for many years. I have exhibtited in numerous group shows, but the bulk of my painting work to date has been to commission. 

I moved to Somerset in 2008 to concentrate on my true love of painting. My aim is to paint a simple object, in an honest way, whilst being true to my nature, but where the 'process' of painting is also important to me. I would like to think I am carrying on the tradition of Modern British Figurative Painting, but in my own un-fettered way. My goal is to paint more freely, but also reflecting a certain 'solitariness' and 'seperation' within the composition, where I am very much the observer of the natural and unadulterated beauty of the every day subject.

My nudes are slowly growing in canvas size, as is my approach to the handling of paint..... Figure painting to me presents the greatest challenges, to paint a very classic subject, but to do it well. Whilst I can appreciate the skills of a photo realist artist, I want to see the marks, corrections, 'accidents', and the texture of paint.... To me nothing replicates real life and the human observation in the same way.