Greg Nunn - Australian artist creating one-off original paintings
Creating art, more specifically painting and sketching, takes me to my happy place, a place where I feel more centred and relaxed. It fuels my soul and enhances my senses, I’m at peace when creating art.
Apart from attending painting workshops and receiving tutoring from some well-known master artists; I am self-taught. I have sketched and painted on and off for most of my life. My artistic career took off in 2005 after moving to Brisbane.
I create art because I love the journey, the challenge and obviously the final outcome. The more complex and detailed the subject the more I enjoy it (a sucker for punishment you might say). I don’t do it to make money, although that helps. I do it for the sense of achievement I get out of finishing a beautiful and admired piece of art.
I try not to box myself into a corner and focus on a single theme or subject matter. I love painting landscapes and iconic urban scenes from my travels. More recently I have been doing portraits and that has proved quite fulfilling also. I do love scenes that somehow incorporate water, that’s always a good challenge.
My medium of choice is predominantly oils on canvas. I typically adopt a 3 or 4 pass technique. First blocking in the large forms, shapes and shadows followed by a couple of translucent modelling/contouring layers to get a better sense of depth. Then the final detail and highlights layer to finish off.
Continuous improvement is important to me. The next painting needs to be better than the last. I’m not looking for any notoriety or becoming wealthy from my pursuit. But I do enjoy sharing my work with others and having them admire something I have put so much effort into. I find that really rewarding.
I get inspiration from all the great masters. It is not so much about their subject and their magnificent finished works, but more about their technique. I love trying to understand what technique they may have employed to achieve a particular outcome. Wherever I can I will visit art galleries to explore the wonderful paintings they exhibit.
