Currently in the Gallery
The exhibition is free, open to all, with no obligation to purchase. On display will be a selection of Original Oil Paintings, in various sizes, as well as Limited Edition Canvas Prints.
Come and visit the Gallery and also the working Studio of Norfolk Artist Nial Adams FRSA. The next Exhibition, 11am – 4pm. Open Days are every month and open to all visitors.
However, if you’d like to visit at any other time Private Viewings can be arranged by appointment. These can be arranged weekends and weekdays, daytime and early evenings.
Please just call Nial on 01603 755 480, or by email to agree a booking date and time.
The Award Winning short documentary film by Tom Martin
The Story So Far
Having realised the need for more space and better accessibility in January 2017 I started a project to convert an old barn, which is directly below my studio, into a gallery and display space.
After a lot of work, cleaning and painting (walls!), my private gallery opened at the Studio here in Hevingham, Norfolk in the Summer of 2017.
Here you’ll find some photos of the restoration project and finished Norfolk gallery. The gallery gives me the opportunity to display my artworks and to welcome visitors, discuss commissions or just talk art.
Starting out with a 17th Century Barn…
What’s On Show?
The gallery is designed to display a number of pieces, from large works to small paintings, as well as small Oil on Paper originals and also a selection of Limited Edition Prints. Prices from £60.
Visit the Norfolk gallery and also see my working studio. On open days and private viewings you’re also welcome to come upstairs and step inside my studio. Please note, as the studio is on a first floor and has an external staircase it may not be accessible to all.
Nial Adams Norfolk Art Gallery Prints on the Wall
It was Christmas 1979, school holidays meant time with my dad and a chance to set up the easel and paint. Again working in monochrome and under his closer supervision he ‘allowed’ me to try my first landscape.
This painting disappeared and only resurfaced after his death. I had no idea he had kept it. It is a treasure of limitless value, a moment captured in time.
At 16 I studied Art at A-Level in sixth-form at the City of Norwich School, with no real plan to pursue art as a career. I simply liked and enjoyed it. Through my teenage years I would very occasionally paint in oils.
The history of Art was also a big part of my education and parental guidance. My father’s knowledge of the Old Masters was unsurpassed; both in terms of his historical and biographical knowledge but deeper than this, he studied technique. Not just the application of paint but also the chemistry, or should that be alchemy, of the great oil painters.
We would spend time in galleries, sometimes in my home city of Norwich, sometimes on a trip to London; the National Gallery, or the Tate.
And this is where my love of the great artists deepened; Caravaggio, Velázquez, Monet, Joseph Wright of Derby, Millais, his personal favourite Rembrandt and many more.
Above all of these though there was one that utterly captivated me; J. M. W. Turner. The energy, the rich but often dark colours, the light, all stirred my soul like nothing I’d ever experienced.
I poured myself into Turner’s work and today it still has the very same effect upon me. I encourage everyone to visit a Turner exhibition at least once in their lifetime.
Stand before the majestic drama of The Fighting Temeraire, with its golden radiance and be utterly consumed. Become intoxicated by the subtle hues of Norham Castle, Sunrise, or find yourself swept away in the turbulence of Rain, Steam and Speed.
For me, there really is nothing that comes close to Turner’s work.
A collection of early pigments from C Roberson & Co
With no plan to make art my career (I knew the story of the penniless artist all too well), I entered my early 20s through self-employment in the security industry. I travelled, eventually changed career, then settled down as a husband and father.
For too many years I planned to paint more, to spend more time with my father at the easel. However, the practice of art was always something I would ‘get around to’, even though my passion for the subject never waned. There would always be next week, or next month.
With knowledge, skills and my creative drive lying dormant for too long I was about to experience the biggest, most shocking catalyst of all. My father died suddenly after a number of years of poor health. No more chance to share ideas, ask questions or simply talk art.
Inheriting his wonderful old French easel, brushes and a collection of art ephemera brought back warm memories and at the same time a frustrating sense of ‘unfinished work’.
Even today I still can’t explain what happened or why. I simply knew that I had to paint again. It was time to pick up the brushes.
My tentative steps back into oil painting were crude, stumbling and nervous. I could ‘see’ but I couldn’t render those images and feelings. Then slowly, as I relaxed (surely always the secret) my brushwork opened up, my mind filled with images that I had to make tangible and my confidence grew.
Sharing some of these first paintings with friends, mostly online, brought praise, encouragement and a large amount of obvious surprise. It is very fair to say that it is the kind words of many good people that have helped me to rediscover my artistic motivation.
To those people, (and you know who you are!) I want to take this opportunity now to say thank you for all your encouragement and support. I really could not have done it without you.
Today, time spent at the easel is something I love and cherish. It is time that I spend with my father; quietly, consciously, and with deep respect and appreciation. I feel the unbreakable connection to him.
Early on, when I returned to my art, I would reach a point in a painting where I struggle and falter. I wished that if only I could ask my father’s advice.
I’d step away from the canvas and think; what advice would he give me now? So I would ask him.
There was always an answer and slowly I began to realise that all those years, over four decades, his knowledge and wisdom of painting had surely and slowly seeped into me.
Nial Adams Today
Today I paint because I can and because I need to. It is beyond doubt the most powerful form of self-expression for me. I love the process; I love the challenge of taking ideas and images and creating illusions. I even like the sense of nervous expectation before I start painting.
It starts long before oil touches canvas. Working out how the layers will be added, how tones will transition, the colours compliment and contrast, how the final highlights with breathe life into a piece. All this requires deep thinking and attention, often for many days before I start to paint.
Then at other times I simply ‘free paint’, as I call it. I start with a blank canvas, no sketches nor references, and often no clear ideas. Then begin to paint with only feelings.
Slowly as the painting takes shape the focus begins and I aim to pull the painting from the canvas, in much the same way a sculptor cuts away the waste stone to reveal the creation.
However I paint, the end result is never certain and often there is some deviation along the way. There are no bad brushstrokes and often ‘happy little accidents’.
The end result is, as they say, what it is.
It comes from within and I hope it connects us.
Nial
If you have a specific requirement, perhaps for a gift or commission, please contact me personally, without any obligation. I’d be delighted to talk with you.
“If I can see further, it is because I stand on the shoulders of giants”