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| Nigel Price | ||||||||||
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Artist's Profile Nigel Price was born in Breacon, mid-Wales in 1933. The surrounding contryside was, and is still, a landscape of soft green mountains, abundant with clear streams, giving way to lush, wooded valleys. Herds of Herefords and Welsh black cattle, as well as the ubiquitous sheep, roam throughout the lowlands. During Nigel's growing up the pace of life was unhurried and there was much to occupy a young boy apart from school activities. Such an unspoiled environment, combined with distinctively Welsh traditions and culture molded him to become the passionate countryman and conservationist he has remained all his life. Nigel received a sound secondary education but had no wish to pursue further studies, thus at the age of sixteen he entered local government service as a trainee draftsman. He served as a sergeant in the Air Training Corps with the intention of joining the Royal Air Force, but because of his talents in draftsmanship, he was drafted into the Royal Engineers (survey section) instead. From the age of eighteen to twenty, he remained in military service, producing maps from aerial survey photgraphs. Within a few months of returning to civilian life, Nigel left his hometown to continue his work as a draftsman with various government authorities in the London area. As time passed however, he became increasingly unsettled and uncertain about his furture. By chance, he met another graphic artist and renewed his interest in the more challenging field of graphic design. This prompted him to enter into Watford College of Art and Technology on the basis of portfolio work produced in his spare time. After graduation he joined a local company as a graphic design assistant. Within three years he married Patricia, who, in the years to come bore him a son and a daughter. Their son, a bright talented youth, unfortuanetly died in a car accident at the age of twenty. Their daughter, Ceris lives and works in London. Soon after marriage, Nigel joined one of England's largest paper products corporations as a design manager. His new job took him to the beautiful peak district of Derbyshire, in the north midlands of England. It was here, with its many similarities to the place of his upbringing, that his interest in portraying country landscapes through the medium of watercolor was kindled and pursued as an absorbing spare time activity. In the cource of time Nigel received a number of promotions to positions of increasing responsibility in the company. Each promotion meant an increase in salary, but a decrease in creative fulfillment and a growing frustration. By the time he was promoted into marketing as a senior manager, Nigel was looking for a career change. Because of family responsibilities, he was cautious. He remained with the company for several more years, but nourished his creative self by painting, compulsively, late into the nights and throughout weekends. Despite continued encouragement from friends and other artist's to begin showing his work in galleries, Nigel, being a perfectionist, rejected the idea, feeling that his work was not yet ready for public viewing. In 1983, one of these friends secretly presented two of Nigel's paintings to a gallery in Bedfordshire that agreed to hang them. The following day, the paintings sold and the gallery owner pleaded for more. Encouraged by this response, Nigel began to supply the gallery on a regular basis. It wasn't long before a prominent art agent discovered his work and began to promote him through galleries and exhibitions throughout England. Over the past twenty-five years, Nigel's paintings have been exhibited in galleries and other venues throughout England and the United States. Nigel's paintings have been included in exhibitions of the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolor, as well as galleries throughout England and the United States.
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