Nick Kelly's Paintings

Painting Style

I am a traditional Landscape painter. I prefer to stick to big landscapes, although sometimes the landscapes of Scotland can have a life and energy all of their own.

I like working quickly which for me helps to keep the energy of the painting - I try to maintain a painterly quality to the painting, but at the same time keep the end result realistic rather than very modern in style. I am always very aware of not over working a painting and try to keep it fresh and energetic - I don't always succeed and occassionally like most other artists I suspect, I can fall foul of tunnel vision and over working with a small brush. I don't like working small, and tend to stick to larger canvases.

The paintings in this site have been produced for commissions but also for my own personal collection. I’ve included some of my very early paintings but the more recent ones are more reflective of my style which has evolved over the years.

Paints

I don't use too many colours. I inherited my Grandfather's painting set and he had a small collection of core colours which I've stuck with. I use the following routinely :

• Titanium White

• Burnt Umber

• Raw Umber

• French Ultramarine

• Cobalt Blue

• Ceruleum Blue

• Crimson Alizarin

• Cadmium Red

• Lemon Yellow

• Yellow Ochre

• Paynes Grey

• Prussuian Blue

• Naples Yellow

I tend to use Daler Rowney colours for artists - and larger tubes for the colours I use most often (especially white). These can be expensive but it pays long term!

Brushes / knives

I have a fairly large collection of brushes, although tend to pain with three or four of my preferred size and style.

I have diamond shaped knives and a flatter shaped knife which I use for rocks and mountains. These can be highly effective, and also destructive on occasion!

Medium

I use a mixture of English Distilled Turpentine, with a good Purified Linseed Oil. When I work normally I would probably mix around 2 or 3 to 1 in favour of turpentine. When I work glazes, I would tend to use a greater portion in Linseed oil to help increase the transparency of the colour - probably 50:50. This is especially true when I paint dark shades.

When painting over more than one sitting it's important to stick to the principle of 'fat over lean'. Fat oil paint is paint that is straight from the tube, and adding more oil such as Linseed makes it fatter. Lean oil paint is paint mixed with more turpentine (or other thinners). Fat paint dries more slowly, so if you paint 'lean over fat' there is a danger that the upper layers crack once the lower layers dry. It's easy to manage by using more linseed oil in your medium over each sitting e.g. I would tend to start with a medium of 50:50 turps : linseed then for successive layers use a fatter medium such as 25:75 turps: linseed.

Canvasses

I buy ready stretched and primed canvasses. I use both cotton and linen canvasses. It does pay to get a good quality one, and linen ones will last much longer than cotton.

I don't work on boards, but prefer the slight 'spring' when painting with a canvas. I don't work in fine detail so I am happy with medium grain, or heavier - these are also better for knife work I think. I sometimes use 'gallery' canvasses which have a broad white edge. These don't need framing, and they can be quite efffective for some paintings. If I am doing a more traditional painting to frame I would use a standard canvas. It is possible to buy the individual parts of the stretching frame, and canvas off the roll, to frame stretch yourself. This is more effort, but this might be an option if there is an unusual shape of canvas you were looking for. You could even buy unprimed canvas and prime it yourself.

Source Materials

The source material for my paintings are based on a mixture of

• Photos I have taken

• Sketches in pencil, accompanied by notes

• Other sources such as photos taken by 3rd parties

I don't generally paint in situ although i have done - I like working in big canvasses and I don't find it very practical! Photos are a perfectly fine source in my view but complimentary sketches can be important as distance can be distorted in a photo. I tend to work very fast and quickly anyway, and I don't feel my pictures are over worked or less energetic especially when working with photos, It is very easy to over work.