Nick Curtis

I studied surface pattern design and worked as a textile designer for a number of years before investing more time to painting. Working from discarded photographic images I am interested in exploring the undisclosed stories and histories of the people that inhabit these images and my aim is to form an understanding of the captured scene and to create a new, alternative narrative and history from a modern perspective while still retaining a sense of nostalgia, that is informed by my own life experiences and memories, and the passing of time since the photograph was taken. I am also interested in the images themselves as objects, like painting a still life, and how the passing of time can sometimes result in different levels off disintegration of the image, to a point where figurative and natural abstraction meet, which I strive to incorporate throughout my practice. I often paint in monochrome in order to emulate a sense of nostalgia and to comment on the relationship between form and tone.