Exhibition 

Both artists use their respective mediums to create meditative images that revel in the long gaze. Following initial connection to their subjects Andrew and Nick contemplate the minute elements that make up the work, lingering on moments in time to create atmospheric slivers of existence. These beautifully crafted observations give the viewer an opportunity to dwell on bold, powerful compositions and to lose themselves in the physical detail and passing ghosts of shadow and light that hold our world together.

Andrew Fitchett 

I have been making paintings since leaving London in 1992. The composition and drawing skills I developed during my design and advertising career have a strong presence in my work. Whether I am working small or large, I find detail is unavoidable. Inspiration often comes from the atmosphere of a place. I am particularly drawn to moments of stillness and isolation, and it is these sensations that make a landscape interesting for me rather than any specific type of terrain. The painting that follows is a kind of enhanced memory that is developed in my studio working with oil on canvas from sketches made on location. Sometimes the work has a meaning beyond the obvious elements that make up the painting and connects with my wider experiences. 

My long-standing love of Crows is more folklore than ornithological, and they often make appearances in my paintings. I have recently been exploring the world of moths and butterflies. Close observation of their intricate wing patterns has inspired me to make a series of oversized paintings in celebration of their beauty. ​

My work is in private collections in UK, Holland, Germany, Norway, America and Canada and I have exhibited my work across the UK from Brighton to Edinburgh.

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​Nick Collins

Nick was born in 1953, and has been making films since 1976. His films, usually filmed on Super-8 and 16mm film, explore landscapes, human presence and absence and the passage of time. Nick Collins’ films have been shown widely at film festivals in Europe and elsewhere.

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'The hallmark of Nick Collins’ films is their concise poetic and observational statement that offer a space for reflection on landscape, cinema, sound and image.’ (A.L. Rees, Sequence, issue 2, 2012).

I think of my films as objects which have a time dimension. Each film should have an overall sense of the time it represents (often the sense of a single, though in reality composite, day) and also a shape across its duration, as well as a feel and a palette. Qualities of light and times of day are very important to me. I attempt a balancing-act between the sense of an event and the sense of an object, trying to achieve both at the same time.

The films are usually the result of my encounters with places, and the filming often involves revisiting places which have a particular historical quality or resonance. My relationship with a place evolves with each visit, with my reading about it and reflection on its filmic possibilities. The films I have made in Greece both draw on and feed my obsession with the ancient world, and with places where it is visible in and part of the present. I prefer small sites to more spectacular ones, which have often been separated off from their surrounding environments.

The film camera is an instrument for seeing and can sometimes represent an individual’s vision. The sense of historical time present in the films throws into relief moments of attention visible in the filming – a pan which is like a glance, a focussing movement, or the appearance of a striking composition. The medium I use, 16mm film, is also important – each frame exposed by the camera is a once-only, permanent altering of a piece of film material, which remains as a trace of the moment of filming. My body of work contains both sound and silent films.