| Nigel Sense is a 33-year-old artist from Australia, who is currently in Sri Lanka getting ready for his first exhibition of paintings here. He prefers to describe his work as 'ignorant art'.
"I don't have any pre-conceived plans in my head when I paint," explains the artist. "Sometimes I'd be painting something and I'd just randomly throw a splash of paint and sometimes I don't even know why I put that mark there. It's just something telling me to do it and I go with it," he says.
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| Nigel Sense |
Nigel dropped out of school at around the age of 16 and managed to get into art school. "I initially started out as a photographer, then I got into painting," said Nigel. "I actually gave up for a while and worked at a food joint for a few years, but then I was inspired again when I was at a gallery in London and I saw a painting of Jackson Pollock, which made me think I need to do this."
After a few years again at university, he decided to travel and India was his first destination. From there he came to Sri Lanka where he met people involved in the Colombo Art Biennale held recently. He's been working and selling his paintings here since then.
"My first exhibition here, which will be at the Paradise Road Gallery will feature 20 new works that have not been displayed before. The theme is mainly personal. It's about what it's like to be an artist at the age of 33. When you're 20, you feel that it's so easy to make it and nothing can get you down.
As you grow older you start to think about settling down and getting a good paying job, getting married, having children and all that, which is the case with most of my old friends back in Australia.
I on the other hand, have none of those things. I travel all over the place and I paint and most of these paintings will be a reflection of myself and what it feels to be at this age and still do what I do."
Nigel explained that while he draws inspiration from abstract artists like Pollock, he is currently transfixed by children's paintings. "And that's because these kids of about four or five years old, they just draw.”
'Nigel Sense at Paradise Road' will start on January 7. |
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