It may be dusty, untidy and seemingly dark, with the only natural light coming from an installed roof lantern, but Nigel's studio provides the necessary atmosphere required to create these fantastically eerie artworks.
He begins most of his projects by placing canvas or paper directly on to his studio floor before layering them with paint, varnish, turpentine and various other materials. What is perhaps most interestingly unique about Nigel's design process however, is how he then leaves these stained canvases on the floor for weeks at a time. 'Eventually they [the paper or canvas] will have accrued many layers of paint and other detritus, which will result in a 'history' upon the surface, then at this stage I can add other marks and elements, often using my hands, rags or other objects, to try and create and emulate the visions I have in my mind'.
For it is this fascination with history as well as art, that inspires Nigel's creations. Moreover, it is one that started at a very young age.
Deindustrialisation; the closing down the likes of mines and factories subsequently followed by widespread poverty and the deprivation of once bustling town centres; was an economic phenomenon that hit much of the Western world pretty hard between the 1960s-1990s. One place in the U.K. that was particularly affected by this occurrence was Coventry, which saw over 31,500 job losses and a 60% decline in it's local economy in just an eight year period [M.Healy, The Case of Coventry, p.328].
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