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| Portrait Paintings |
"Beautiful paintings of people and still-life objects which have something else: a mysterious, sometimes disquieting presence"
Duncan Macmillan, The Scotsman
Nicola Green’s portraits capture her subjects by finding the one special aspect that sums up the whole person, be it their stance, the tilt of their chin or the way they hold their hands.
Green's distinctive style is influenced by the tradition of Northern European figurative painting and twentieth century photography. While all portraiture, throughout history, has been concerned with capturing the likeness of an individual, Nicola’s unique approach allows the essence of the person to be expressed in one single aspect. By focusing on this and imbuing it with the greatest importance, Nicola succeeds in portraying the whole person.
Like Koestler’s definition of a “holon”, where something is simultaneously a whole and a part, Nicola’s paintings use the idea that the whole person is contained within one part of their being. Nicola’s particular skill is in finding, defining and then capturing that aspect, successfully conveying the whole through it.
Nicola has painted a family portrait depicting nothing but their feet in their favourite shoes, capturing the personalities of each family member without reference to their face or upper body. In another portrait, Nicola painted four children from the back – ten years on, now adults, the subjects themselves think the portrait is as revealing of their personalities today as it was then. In her portrait of Joshua Compston, currently in the 2006 BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery, Nicola captures his intensity and vision through the particular way he stands. It may be a full length, life-size painting of Joshua from the front, but it is his stance that is the key to revealing his personality.
Nicola works in oil on wood, carefully building up thin layers of paint to achieve a luminous quality. She brings a sharp, almost photo-realistic focus to the detail of her subject matter, be it the texture of the skin or the sheen of a leather shoe. At the same time Nicola's paintings always include space that vibrates with light and colour, giving an abstract quality to the environment in which her subject sits that throws the detail into sharp relief.
"Her paintings are beautiful and interesting; they please the eye and intrigue the brain."
Victoria Coren, Evening Standard.
SELECTED COMMISSIONS
The feet of the children of Nigella Lawson and John Diamond
The faces of Richard Curtis and Emma Freud’s family
Full-length portrait of the late Joshua Compston
Profile of Angus Deayton’s son
The legs of Clive Anderson and his family
The faces of Antony Fry’s family
Profiles of Arthur Smith and his father P.C Syd Smith
Full-length portrait of Charlotte Windmill
The shoes of Hannah Rothschild's children
To see more examples of Nicola's work, please go to the Paintings album in the Gallery.
Please contact Nicola for a price list.
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* Click here to listen to Martha Kearney interviewing Nicola Green on Woman's Hour May 2003
