Hello. I’m Nigel Orme, a painter based in Norfolk, UK. I paint using acrylics on canvas. I find endless fascination in the changing of the light across the world around me. When I work, I try to capture the atmosphere of my subject. I want to draw the viewer into a painting using bold compositions, and often paint paths disappearing into woodland or figures half hidden in shadow.

 

I’m particularly interested in colour and contrast where borders meet; the dark shadow of a hawthorn hedge alongside the sharp acid yellow of a field of rapeseed, or a black-coated figure silhouetted against the glittering reflections in a café.

 

I’m less concerned with detail and more interested in the feel of the space I’m looking at; the sweep of a shadow, a slab of colour for a face, or the wedges of sky between branches. When I paint a tree or a figure, I see it like a piece of sculpture. I’m interested in the volume it takes up, the space it commands around it, and its context, rather than its individual details.

 

I’m not a purist about technique. I make marks – dots, splashes, smears – that say something of how I feel about the subject I see in front of me. I work with large brushes to represent the essence of a form and try to capture the spirit of my subject.

 

My paintings are a celebration of how mark-making can create mood and atmosphere.