Having
graduated from art college, Nicolas Trudgian spent many years
as a professional illustrator before turning to a career in
fine art painting. His crisp style of realism, attention to
detail, compositional skills and bright use of colours, immediately
found favour with collectors and demand for his original work
soared on both sides of the Atlantic. Today, more than a decade
after becoming a fine art painter, Nicolas Trudgian is firmly
established within a tiny, elite group of aviation artists whose
works are genuinely collected world-wide.
When he
paints an aircraft you can be sure he has researched it in every
detail and when he puts it over a particular airfield, the chances
are he has paid it a recent visit. Even when he paints a sunset
over a tropical island, or mist hanging over a valley in China,
most probably he has seen it with his own eyes.
Nick was
born and raised in the seafaring city of Plymouth, the port
from which the Pilgrim Fathers set sail in 1620, and where Sir
Francis Drake played bowls while awaiting the Spanish Armada.
Growing up in a house close to the railway station within a
busy military city, the harbour always teeming with naval vessels
and the skies above resonating with the sounds of naval aircraft,
it was not at all surprising the young Nick became fascinated
with trains, boats and aircraft.
It was from
his father, himself a talented artist, that Nick acquired his
love of drawing and surrounded by so much that was inspiring,
there was never a shortage of ideas for pictures. His talent
began to show at an early age and although he did well enough
at school, he always spent a disproportionate amount of time
drawing. People talked about him becoming a Naval officer or
an architect but in 1975 Nick's mind was made up. When he told
his careers teacher he wanted to go to art school the man said,
'Now come on, what do you really want to do?"
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After
leaving school Nick began a one-year foundation course at the
Plymouth College of Art. Now armed with an impressive portfolio
containing paintings of jet aircraft, trains, even wildlife, he
was immediately accepted at every college he applied to join.
He chose a course at the Falmouth College of Art in Cornwall specialising
in technical illustration and paintings of machines and vehicles
for industry. It was perfect for Nick, and he was to become one
of the star pupils. One of the lecturers commented at the time:
"Every college needs someone with a talent like Nick to raise
the standards sky high; he carried all the other students along
with him, and created an effect which will last for years to come."
Two weeks after leaving art college Nick blew every penny he had
on a trip to South Africa to ride the great steam trains across
the desert, sketching them at every opportunity.
Returning
to England, in best traditions of all young artists, he struggled
to make a living. Paintings by an unknown artist didn't fetch
much despite the painstaking effort and time Nick put into each
work, so when the college he had recently left offered him a job
as a lecturer, he jumped at the chance. The money was good and
he discovered that he really enjoyed teaching.
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Throughout
the 1970s Nick was much involved with a railway preservation society
near Plymouth and it was through the railway society that he had
his first pictures reproduced as prints. But Nick felt he needed
to advance his career and in summer 1985 Nick moved away from
Cornwall to join an energetic new design studio in Wiltshire.
Here he painted detailed artwork for many major companies including
Rolls Royce, General Motors, Volvo Trucks, Alfa Romeo and, to
his delight, the aviation and defence industries. He remembers
the job as exciting though stressful, often requiring him to work
right through the night to meet a client's deadline. Here he learned
to be disciplined and fast.
Over
the past decade Nick has earned a special reputation for giving
those who love his work much more than just aircraft in his paintings.
He goes to enormous lengths with his backgrounds, filling them
with interesting and accurate detail, all designed to help give
the aircraft in his paintings a tremendous sense of location and
purpose. His landscapes are quite breathtaking and his buildings
demonstrate an uncanny knowledge of perspective but it is the
hardware in his paintings which are most striking. Whether it
is an aircraft, tank, petrol bowser, or tractor, Nick brings it
to life with all the inordinate skill of a truly accomplished
fine art painter.
A
prodigious researcher, Nick travels extensively in his constant
quest for information and fresh ideas. He has visited India, China,
South Africa, South America, the Caribbean and travels regularly
to the United States and Canada. He likes nothing better than
to be out and about with sketchbook at the ready and if there
is an old steam train in the vicinity, well that's a bonus! |
