Nick Kelleher

Nick Kelleher's artistic inspiration comes at this time from life, love, light, nature and the human condition.

As an artist whose degree was in Fine Art painting and print making I am fascinated by my leaning and constant striving towards a more 'graphic' type of image. It ends up with an almost constant battle to obtain a 'graphically' appearing image which at the same time retains a 'painterly' and textural quality.

Getting drawn and pulled constantly towards trees and nature in my artwork and have been for years. I am increasingly understanding the tactile nature of oil paint and how it can be subtly applied in an impressionistic yet modern way with strong tonal variations to capture the delicate nature of the light and colours in our local environment.

I am an art teacher and currently teaching at secondary level in East Sussex. At school I teach students from the age of 11 to 18 taking them through Key Stage 3, GCSE and A level (currently with a 92% pass rate at GCSE and 100% at A level) and I find that that my primary role (especially in teaching art at Key stage 3) is all about installing confidence in ability, confidence to explore and manipulate materials and processes and teaching how to take the time to look at things correctly.
When people say to me 'I'm crap at art I can't draw’, I usually find that they can draw (although of course drawing is only one tiny part of a creative tool kit) but they simply need to learn how to look properly at things in order to draw accurately.
Of course some people are born with a creative flair and a gift in the subject but I honestly believe that any one person can be successfully creative. ‘Art’ is a demonstration through visual language of an exploration and a perceiving of life through thinking in an intellectually different way and this is accesable to all.