NINA PARSONS
“I choose to paint in oil for the texture it brings to compositions. My favourite kind of paintings are visibly tactile, artists such as Frank Auerbach and Leon Kossoff were an early influence on the way I use paint, applying generously and building impasto.”
My paintings begin in a traditional way, I draw quickly, and establish my compositions and shapes from these sketches. I then consider colour and pattern, drawing in oil pastel as I am able to replicate the textures I create with paint, before moving onto canvas where I work with oil paints to build dimension in flat planes of colour.
As a very visually motivated person I find inspiration in places and images that are particularly colourful and/or offer interesting shapes. This could be a dinner in a restaurant with an orange tablecloth or a line of unoccupied chairs in a waiting room; I recently found an abundance of subject material in the randomly assorted furniture and crockery of an antiques emporium. Beyond compositional material, I often look for inspiration in Matisse’s work, particularly paintings from the fauvist movement that emphasised flattened forms and expressive colour.
Nina Parsons studied fine art at Goldsmiths University, and after graduating in 2022, continued to make work from her home in Surrey before founding and establishing Open 205, an artist-run gallery/studio space in South East London, where she currently produces work as a resident artist. Alongside featuring in external group exhibitions such as 'Horizon Reverie’ at One Paved Court in Richmond, her new work is regularly exhibited at the gallery space.
