Food and drink
Nick Holly
Llandeilo in snow
New horizons
Blue Bus NYC
ARTIST NICK HOLLY FIRST BECAME WELL KNOWN FOR HIS DEPICTION OF SWANSEA; THEN HE CONQUERED NEW
YORK. NOW HE HAS EXPANDED HIS HORIZONS TO ENCOMPASS EGYPT AND FRANCE. BY DAI BLATCHFORD
Most people in Swansea will have seen Nick Holly’s thought they saw echoes of Lowry in the buildings I real attraction to New York. Some of his most popular
distinctive paintings. He has developed a niche for was painting,” explains Nick. “Gradually I included more works include his take on New York cityscapes. He will
himself with his representations of active and lively fi gures in my paintings until I arrived at my present be exhibiting some of these together with the work
scenes often based on his home of Swansea. It wasn’t style. It is very fl attering to be compared to Lowry, inspired by his visits to Cairo and Paris.
always like this, however. His style progressed from his especially as he is one of my favourite painters.”
early years when he was still at school. At 15 he was
Family holidays in both places this year have inspired
painting and selling his work to family and friends; the
The style that Nick refers to is now pretty well formed, him to create work to complement his established
art bug had bitten early.
and he has enjoyed signifi cant success in recent years. subjects. As well as the New York paintings, there are
But it took more than 15 years to become an overnight new ones of Tenby and Hay-on-Wye to continue the
“I wanted to paint even when I was a schoolboy, but success. During that time, although he continued to Welsh connection, as well as Egyptian and French
when I told my careers offi cer he almost laughed,” paint, both he and his wife worked in other jobs as his paintings. Nick says the quality of the light caught his
recalls Nick. “He started directing me towards factory reputation developed. “I was still working part time up attention in both cities. Though different in quality, he
work, assuring me that there would be outlets for my to a few years ago and I have worked in shops, in the says it was equally inspiring. After that came some of
creativity there. Apart from art I enjoyed practical things, sorting offi ce and anything going in order to sustain my the distinguishing features, the Egyptian pyramids and
particularly ceramics, but the academic side of things artistic career.” the Eiffel Tower. “I’ve always had a fascination with
wasn’t for me.” Egypt and ancient Egypt in particular,” explains Nick. “I
No artist wishing to prosper can afford to continue to
was a little apprehensive before the visit, as sometimes
Like a lot of successful artists, success was not an do the same thing. Nick is well aware of this. His early
fulfi lling an ambition can turn out to be disappointing.
immediate visitor. But Nick found that “the more I work focused on his community in the east of the
This certainly wasn’t the case in Egypt and the
practised the luckier I got.” And he now regards himself city, at least partly because assignment work while
pyramids really overwhelmed me. The sheer scale was
as a very lucky man because he is making his living a student pointed him in that direction. And he has
awesome.”
from something he loves. “Initially I was painting empty retained that interest in depicting the vibrancy and
scenes. There were no people in them. I had always colour of the streets in his current work. In Paris, the Eiffel Tower became a subject, as did
been a fan of LS Lowry and was conscious of not the Folies Bergere. The famous Sacre Coeur, with its
copying his work, though in my early pieces people
In addition to his native Swansea, Nick has formed a
amazing view over the city also proved inspirational
20 swansealife November 2009
NickHolly.indd 20 19/10/2009 19:32:39
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164