{"id":2314,"date":"2022-05-13T10:14:54","date_gmt":"2022-05-13T10:14:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/stamford\/?p=841"},"modified":"2022-05-13T10:14:54","modified_gmt":"2022-05-13T10:14:54","slug":"painting-stamford-nick-grove","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/rutland-and-stamford\/heart-of-the-county\/painting-stamford-nick-grove\/05-2022","title":{"rendered":"Painting Stamford: Nick Grove"},"content":{"rendered":"

Above All Saints\u2019 Street, through an open sash window, and in beautiful natural light, you might spy Stamford Artist Nick Grove applying the final brush strokes to one of his canvases… look out for his work in an exclusive exhibition in the town from late-May!<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"Nick
Nick Grove at work in his studio on Stamford’s All Saints.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sunrise in Norfolk, and Nick Grove stepped out of his sunshine yellow 1978 Volkswagen camper van, took a deep breath of coastal air, and set up his easel. It was the beginning of a new day and a new career, but it also represented a new chapter of Nick\u2019s life following his pledge to be true to himself and follow a path he would enjoy, not one he\u2019d endure.<\/p>\n

About five years on, Nick is an established artist, specialising in oil paintings en plein air with the towns of Stamford, Oundle, Norfolk and London among his favourite subjects.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy daughters are 10 and 14 respectively, and like all parents, you try to set them a good example,\u201d he says. \u201cI was schooled in Oundle, and completed a Fine Art degree, which was really inspiring. I began working as a fine art photographer and filmmaker, which I really enjoyed, but I always had a feeling that I should be doing something else, something more fulfilling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because Nick was so in demand \u2013 and because he has industry awards to underwrite his talent \u2013 commissions for his photography kept coming in, so pulling back from his career to pursue another interest was hard. He still undertook wedding photography work until 2018, but was already finessing his techniques as a self-taught painter, soon becoming more in demand for his portraiture work, but also enjoying painting landscapes and streetscapes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m now based in Stamford and it\u2019s a great muse. It\u2019s a really beautiful town and I\u2019m very happy to paint its streets as there are so many old buildings, with such wonderful architecture and so many great looking vantage points that almost seem to place themselves naturally into a composition.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI paint alla prima, which is to say \u2018at first attempt.\u2019 I\u2019ll travel as lightly as possible and set up a travel easel on the street, then it\u2019s a case of getting the initial composition down onto the canvas and blocking it in, working from left to right and slowly down the picture. You\u2019d think that as photographer in my previous life I\u2019d be happier to take a photograph of the scene to freeze it in time and provide an accurate point of reference… but in fact that\u2019s the opposite of how I work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI much prefer to be on the street, seeing how the light changes and watching people pass by. I complete as much as I can in the field and then finish off each composition in the studio.\u201d<\/p>\n

We might not be in Norfolk overlooking a seaside sunrise, but back in Stamford it\u2019s just as pretty and a little bit warmer. So warm, in fact, that Nick has the sash window open and lots of natural light coming into the room. He\u2019s accompanied, too, by Monty, his five year old Spaniel.<\/p>\n

\u201cStamford is a fantastic place to paint and I often look out of the window and have that urge to just go onto the street there and then, and set up my easel. Each piece takes three hours at least, in the field, plus another few hours back in the studio, and I\u2008work exclusively in oils. I\u2019ve already painted Broad Street, Ironmonger Street, Red Lion Square and the Meadows, but with different weather giving the town a different look throughout the year, Stamford is a location that keeps on giving.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sizes of Nick\u2019s canvases range from around 10\u201d x 12\u201d, up to about 24\u201d x 30\u201d, and this month will see a brand new collection unveiled exclusively in Stamford at Adrian Hill Fine Art, based in The Mews adjacent to The George Hotel.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be around 25 or 30 pieces, roughly half of which will feature Stamford.\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019m looking forward to attending a private viewing on 20th May immediately before the exhibition, and to my first solo exhibition in London in January 2023, and throughout the summer, I also hope I\u2019ll be able to meet a few Stamfordians out on the street as I\u2008work!\u201d<\/p>\n

Find Out More: Nick Grove is a professional artist specialising in \u2018en plein air\u2019 streetscapes and landscapes. His work is on display at Adrian Hill Fine Art in The Mews adjacent to The George Hotel, Stamford from Saturday 21st – Thursday 26th May. For more information see www.nickgrove-artworks.co.uk or www.adrianhillfineart.com.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Nick
Nick Grove’s Stamford streetscapes.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Above All Saints\u2019 Street, through an open sash window, and in beautiful natural light, you might spy Stamford Artist Nick…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2697,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[174,663,664,665,28],"class_list":["post-2314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-heart-of-the-county","tag-artist","tag-grove","tag-landscapes","tag-nick","tag-stamford"],"acf":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/rutland-and-stamford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/rutland-and-stamford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/rutland-and-stamford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/rutland-and-stamford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/rutland-and-stamford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/rutland-and-stamford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/rutland-and-stamford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/rutland-and-stamford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/rutland-and-stamford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/rutland-and-stamford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}