Profile: Nathan Walsh
Nathan Walsh is a professional full time painter, living and working in the North East. After graduating in Graphic Arts, he studied Fine Art Painting before setting up his own studio. His meticulous work has been exhibited worldwide and is held in numerous private and public collections.
He describes his work in these words,’My work attempts to present a credible space, which whilst making reference to the visible world, and documentary photography obeys its own distinct logic. From determining a horizon line at the start of the process to spraying a final glaze of colour I control the nature of the world I present to the viewer. Whether simply changing the size of a building or introducing a structure found on Google Earth, I like the idea of inventing another reality, familiar in some ways to us but fundamentally of my own making.
This is most evident at the drawing stage of the work which is the most open-ended and creative part of my process. Working with a box of pencils and an eraser I will draw and redraw buildings, vanishing points will be shifted and material rearranged. At this point I aim to take ownership of the raw information I’m working with and not let it dictate what’s happening. Creating an urban landscape within my own perspectival space has more potential than simply duplicating the flatness of a photograph. Whilst a camera lens or software package can suggest a mechanical space this is at odds with how we actually experience reality. I’m interested in creating paintings where the viewer feels they can enter into and move around, and talk of the world we live in.’
