Rower shows different strokes

A ROWER turned artist who was driven to capture the vivid lights and reflections of rivers on canvas is returning to Amber Galleries next weekend.

In “Nick Quirke: Light Source”, Nick will be exhibiting his vibrant, atmospheric artworks, inspired by his experiences such as winning the 2002 Thames Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta with the Leander rowing team.

Three years ago, Nick exhibited at the Old Fire Station Gallery, then in 2023 he exhibited with Sarah Pye and others at Goring village hall, before coming to Amber Galleries that autumn.

“I’m massively excited about Henley,” says Nick.

“Not that I am an artist known for painting Temple Island, and I don’t want to call it a niche, but I must have painted it 200 times.

“There’s something about the way that the island is situated in the middle of the river that works really well with the back landscape and how I can reflect the sky directly on to the water. There’s something about the actual scene that I very much enjoy painting.

“Teal and pink are my two favourite colours. I grew up in North London and I would always walk to school.

“There were two parks I would always walk through and returning from school at four o’clock, there would always be graffiti artists and I was obsessed with watching them. The two colours that would always stick out were the teals and the pinks and I do love those colours.

“I’ve been trying to experiment recently and I’ve managed to work out how to use an airbrush with oil paint. Normally you can only use it with an acrylic paint, so with oil paint, you’ve got to get the right consistency.

“I’ve worked out with different oils and different mediums how I can get a thin enough consistency with enough paint application that it works and that’s quite exciting.

“If I can work a way of achieving these paintings and colours in a different way, I think that could be exciting as well.

“It’s taken me a long time to develop how I make my own mediums and my oils and a mixture of oil and turpentine and maybe wax.

“It’s juggling those around for years until you find a medium that you’ve created that works. It’s like a scientist’s secret for a potion or something.”

Nick, 43, went to Shiplake College and rowed for Leander before going to art college in London. He graduated from Spike Island arts centre in Bristol in 2006 with a diploma in fine art, going on to study sport science at Hartpury University in Gloucestershire.

He was director of rowing at the University of the West of England for 15 years before becoming a full-time artist.

Nick lives in Thornbury, South Gloucestershire, with his wife Natasha, who manages child adoption, and their two daughters, Gracie, eight, and Maisie, nearly six.

“There’s been times where I’ve had to paint late, I’ve had to bring the work home and work in the kitchen or the living room,” says the artist.

“Gracie loves to draw and Maisie loves to paint, so they’re both quite arty in their own right.

“They look at their own work and they will say, ‘Oh look, that sky is like Daddy’s painting’, or ‘That colour is like a colour that Daddy would use’, so they’re very aware of the vibrant colours that I use. I very much say, ‘You’ve got to pick your own colours, don’t pick Daddy’s colours, do your own thing’.”

Nick is also working on a new theme, to be shown in the Royal Gallery in the Stewards’ Enclosure at this year’s Henley Royal Regatta.

“It’s very random but I want to bring a period drama into Henley Royal Regatta. I want to base the artwork in the Regency fashion period, by doing vibrant colours for women’s dresses and men’s top hats and that fashion really does excite me.

“My Temple Island and river scenes have been pretty popular over the last few years there, but I want to push the boundary a little more and give them maybe one or two pieces where there’s more of a genre, more of a story behind it.

“The regatta started in 1839 and I’d love to be able to do ‘Bridgerton comes to Henley’, with the dresses, the fun aspect of it, using the colours that I use in my skies and my reflections but in fashion.”

Nick’s artworks have evolved in other ways.

“On a very personal level, I lost my mum almost a year ago. When you’re an artist, your livelihood is to paint and for three months, the last thing that was on my mind was picking up a paintbrush.

“So, I’ve definitely learnt that I can’t paint unless I’m in the right frame of mind but also emotionally I think you’ve got to be grounded almost, or ready to paint.

“Certainly in the last five months, there’s a particular style that is just how I paint. Whereas before, I still felt like I was developing and changing and using different colours, now I’ve found the colours, I know how they work and interact with each other, I know how to blend them.

“I’ve also learnt that listening to music has a huge impact on how I paint, what I paint. So from the start of a painting could be fast, bassy music, the later stages of a painting will be very classical, chilled out so I can do the blending.

“Then I can put fine detail in using different music, with no lyrics, because I will think about words and the lyrics and it just confuses me.

“I think when I first started [painting again] after my mum had passed, music had a focal point that I would concentrate more on what I was doing and not revert back to thinking about what had happened. I was so relieved that I could paint again and that people wanted my art as well, so it was just great to get back into the way life of an artist.”

Last year, Nick was commissioned by the Winchester Royal Hotel to create a painting for its main lobby and five of his pieces are going to Signet Contemporary Gallery in Chelsea.

“I’m massively excited that I’m going to be going to New York with my art in March,” says Nick.

“Having my art in New York has always been a personal goal and Signet took two of my pieces to New York six months ago.

“They contacted me to say that the art had sold very quickly. New York has always been the centre of the art world and I’m very excited that my work will be there.”

• “Nick Quirke: Light Source, A vibrant exploration of light and water”, is at Amber Galleries in Market Place, Henley, from Friday, February 14 to Sunday, February 16. On the Friday, Nick will be at the gallery from 6pm to 8pm, to RSVP to the event, visit ambergalleries.com