Artist Nick Archer And His Rowing Art

HTBS’s Hélène Rémond, who has a warm interest for paintings and art work, has briefly talked to the British painter Nick Archer about his rowing paintings. Hélène writes,

British painter Nick Archer, born 1963, has been working on a sporting themes for some time, mainly based on film footage from the 2008 Olympic Games. He has actually worked with imagery of swimmers, cyclists and horse racing as well as rowing. “The main interest for me was to capture the movement, energy and atmosphere of the events”, Archer says.


One of these paintings - the photos attached are the studies (85 x 120 cm) of the larger paintings (153 x 183 cm) - is at the Hurlingham Clubhouse in London. The painting of the rowers at the Hurlingham was one in a series. The Hurlingham Club commissioned the large painting having seen the study. It was taken from film footage of a race between the Canadian boat and the British boat in the Olympics. “A main source of inspiration for the rowing paintings was a painting by the great American painter Thomas Eakins of a rower. I think it was called the ‘sculler’. It was the movement and how this reflected in the water which was my main interest. Also the geometric shapes created by the oars and reflected in the water which created patterns”, he explains.

You will find more about Nick Archer's work on these two websites:
www.nicholasarcher.com
www.archerart.fsnet.co.uk