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...Once I completed all my formal training I decided to move to London, approaching all of the major city publishers with my portfolio. It was there that I worked on illustrations for children’s books and after 6 months moved to Cambridge where I continued working as a freelance illustrator. Shortly after, I moved back to my home town of Saltaire in West Yorkshire, taking up the position as a designer for a greetings card company where I was also involved in product design and development. Following that, I was involved in directing photo shoots and later became a photographic art director, traveling all over the world, for the next year, on fashion shoots. In 1993 I gave up my photographic job and spent the next five years working freelance on card designs with major publishers.
It wasn’t until 1999 when I decided to enter the fine art market and approached Washington Green with my portfolio. They have since published over 40 of my designs and are currently developing some of my art into sculpture.
IDEAS & INSPIRATIONS
“If you don’t want anybody to know anything about you – don’t write a song!” I can’t remember where I heard this quote but it serves well to explain how one’s personality is revealed through a song, or in my case, a painting. I’m naturally a shy person and find it difficult to articulate my thoughts verbally. When I’m put on the spot and asked to explain my work, I usually end up a gibbering wreck, cursing myself later for my lack of verbal dexterity. My true personality reveals itself through my paintings. Many of my paintings are about good and evil – innocence and malevolence.
When I was a child I remember believing what a wonderful and happy place the world was. I loved to learn about other people in other countries and wanted to visit them all. Of course, I now realize things aren’t quite as I once imagined, and the once distant places where I so wanted to be, are not so far away; they are actually on my doorstep. The world is a place where the innocent pay the heaviest price. It affects me deeply. It’s like living in the garden of ‘Good and Evil’. I can’t ignore it, so I depict it in the form of these innocent pictures.
I leave it to the individual to look at my paintings and choose what they would like to see, innocence or malevolence – the good or the evil! Above all else, I am, and always will be, an eternal optimist. Optimism is one of the greatest gifts we possess. When I think about it, I think of the song ‘Fields of Gold’ by Sting – the lyrics sum it up! These two opposing juxtapositions ultimately explain many of my paintings. Look at the ones which have malevolent titles, mainly the evil cats. To me they are representations of evil. However, at first glance, the impression they exude is optimism. The wide-eyed cats and dogs always look petrified and are representations of the innocents. You can choose to see these paintings any way you like. See love and happiness or death and the Devil, it doesn’t matter so long as you see something and connect with it. You get the most from a painting if it connects with you. When you look at an abstract painting, you can see nothing or you can see it all – it’s either for you or it isn’t! For me this simple philosophy sums up what is art and what is not – you either like it or you don’t! My paintings are from my soul and I hope, honest.
FROM PALETTE TO PICTURE
Before I begin a painting, I start with a very rough preliminary colour sketch, which I may have done weeks or months ago. I keep my sketches along with notes and ideas in dozens of sketchbooks. The books are overstuffed with ragged bits of paper containing ‘those thoughts’ that just pop into your head unannounced at the strangest times.
With the aid of my sketches, I know exactly what I’m going to paint when I’ve pinned up my canvas. It is very spontaneous. I have all my colours pre-determined. I use solid oil bars directly onto canvas, manipulating the paint with my fingers, using no brushes. The paint reacts with the heat from my fingers and the more you work it, the more fluid it becomes. It’s a wonderful and unusual medium to work with.
Composition usually begins life as pure abstract shapes. Flow of line and form, as well as ‘negative shapes’, are important here. I also look for connections between shapes and link them with connecting lines. The balance and harmony of colour pull the whole composition together. The end result is part defined and part abstract.
In my ‘pure’ abstracts I look to nature and emotion, and build on that. From life seen through the window of a speeding car or the blurred reflection of a city seen through bleary eyes, to the depiction of a single moment of intense emotion expressed through layers of paint. It’s a very pure art form.
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF GOVINDER NAZRAN
I wake up around 7.30am and listen to the news for a while. My wife Sarah is already up and about and she offers me a cup of coffee and a kiss before she heads off to work. Eden, my eight year old daughter and I get up at approx. 8am. Between then and the school run, I try to organize my thoughts for today’s work. I’m in the studio at 9.30am. I put on a CD, as I can’t paint without my music; it channels my thoughts into the work I’m doing. I need something loud and menacing today – ‘New Model Army’ does the trick! I’m working on a huge family of red cats. It’s a painting I planned months ago and even though the cats are defined, it’s still a very abstract painting. The cats all have evil eyes. They represent evil people, hordes of them. I call this painting ‘Legion’. At 3.25pm I stop work to pick up Eden from school, fix her a bite to eat and finish off painting for the day. When Sarah returns at 5.30pm and we both have a large gin and tonic. Working the way I do can be an isolating experience and requires lots of self discipline. I can go for days without speaking to anyone other than my wife and daughter which doesn’t bother me at all. I enjoy it. I especially enjoy the reaction when Sarah returns from work. When she leaves in the morning she sees a blank canvas and upon her return she witnesses a finished painting. Sarah and Eden are the first point of contact for my paintings. They are truly my greatest inspiration and also my very honest critics. At around 11pm I go into my studio, put on some music and look at the paintings still drying on the walls. This is my thinking time. It’s good to see them with ‘fresh eyes’ and in a different light. Sometimes I just look at them for hours. I always get something out of it, whether it’s a new painting or just a good night’s sleep – I always get something! | 
Govinder Nazran Artist Biography
