Nicola Hepworth United Kingdom

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I am a painter who is interested in people, places, objects and groups in society. My role as a teacher informs my work and I often respond to my immediate environment. Painting offers a special opportunity to combine imagery, technique and art historical references to tell stories and suggest ideas. The act of looking, drawing and the physical mixing and application of colour are important to me.

I work primarily in oil paint, influenced by the figurative painting tradition that I trained in at Edinburgh College of Art in the 1990s. This included much drawing directly from the human figure. My practice involves drawing directly from people, objects and places, or from photographs of the subjects. I also often include narrative elements, metaphorical imagery and art historical references. Recently my projects have included working from groups of students I teach, creating paintings that explore groups in society, undermining stereotypes and celebrating diversity. I have also made several paintings of workers and customers in nail salons. The act of repetitive painting as an industry and the interactions between people in such a semi-public setting interests me. I hope to expand this series to look at people who work in creative jobs in the modern world, but who are sometimes overlooked, underpaid or low status. Having worked as a face painter in the past ths is a personal interest of mine. I find the value of art and creativity- or lack of it- fascinating. Painting people is untimately about empathy and I create portraits as well as narraative paintings which are more difficult to define.