Nicholas is a critically acclaimed portrait artist known for producing highly realistic, meticulously crafted oil paintings for both private commissions and public collections. His clients include political figures, military heads, leading academics, clerics and Presidents of some of the UK’s top Societies and Institutions. His work can be seen in highly prestigious collections including: The UK Law Society, Glasgow University, 1 Great George Street, Westminster, Lloyds Banking Group HQ, Chester Cathedral and Lancashire Military Museum amongst others. He has exhibited with The Royal Institution of Oil Painters, The Royal Society of British Artists and was one of the first artists to appear on Sky’s “Portrait Artist of the Year” in 2013. He works from his studio in Wiltshire and accepts commissions (and is happy to travel) UK wide or internationally as required.
Nicholas J Smith
Smith always likes to begin the process with an informal, introductory meeting where the sitter and I can discuss any ideas/thoughts they may have for the project. It’s a good opportunity to spend a little time with the sitter; a couple of hours in someone’s company can be invaluable in getting a brief insight of character.
Over the following week or so, discussions would continue via Email or phone and he would develop a rough idea of direction for the sittings. He tries to keep the sittings to a minimum; normally it would involve a couple of afternoon sessions where he would visit the client ( he has found sitters to be much more relaxed in their own environment) where I’d make a few planning sketches and take many reference photos.
When the artist feels like he has sufficient reference material he will begin to mock up a few composition ideas for consideration (either sketches or photo-shopped). Smith would then spend a couple of weeks fine-tuning via email until there was a definitive agreed reference for me to work from. Finally he would put together an Agreement Email detailing all aspects of the project (size/cost/timescales etc) for approval, with a 25% deposit requested as a firm commitment to the project. Then painting would begin from the artist’s studio, depending on workloads and complexity a portrait can take between 1-3 months however consideration will always be given should there be any specific deadlines involved.