Iron Trees, Golden Shadows is the latest Lewes exhibition

It comes from David C Nix who has lived in Hove for many years but two years ago took up a studio in The Star Brewery Workshops in Lewes: “It is in this space that I both create for myself and teach workshops in printmaking and early 19th-century photographic techniques such as cyanotype and salt printing.

“This exhibition is a very eclectic mix of painting, printmaking and alternative photographic processes. The drivers behind the work are a love of nature and concern for its demise at our hands. A particular bug bear is our reliance on single use plastic, and a series of images within the show presents elements of fading natural beauty captured in blocks of ice whose shapes in turn are dictated by the physical forms of everyday plastic food storage containers. As the flowers, leaves, berries and the ice containing them fade, the plastic that once held them will go into landfill and take centuries to break down, if ever.

“Paintings and prints explore place, both the everyday and the significant. More out of the way locations visited are juxtaposed with everyday landscapes in a meditation on how essential both are in forming a sense of personal identity for each of us.

“Ancient photographic techniques from the pioneering days of the 19th century demand a more measured approach and can take a great deal of time to evolve. Making photographs with iron (cyanotypes and argyrotypes) and silver (salt prints) forges a more elemental connection with nature and seems to help imbue mundane subject matter with a sense of personality, in keeping with the Japanese idea of tsukumogami, the spirit of things.”

David added: “I was born on the front seat of an Austin A35 van (think Wallace and Gromit!), late at night, in the wilds of the Hampshire countryside. After studying art at university, I worked as an archaeological photographer and model maker and then moved into teaching art and photography at international FE colleges for nearly 40 years.

“After the pandemic and various lockdowns I had the chance to set up my own studio and try to make up for creative time lost during an intense teaching career. As some of the practical processes that I use are fairly archaic and obscure I decided to start teaching workshops to try and encourage people to learn more about those aspects of our shared cultural history. The classes I teach are small, bespoke and represent an ideal opportunity for anyone interested to delve into the mysteries of different 19th century processes.

“When I was young, around eight years old, my mother passed on to me the box of oil paints from her own childhood and ever since that time drawing and painting and making things have been far more attractive than running a cross country or playing football in the school playground.

“In my teens I saw the work of Francis Bacon for the first time and I realised that the visual arts could move you to tears at the same time as forcing you to look at the world in different ways. Thus began a lifelong intrigue with the potential of malleable physical materials. As for inspiration, as well as the visual arts, literature, music and film are vital: the Golden Age of Japanese cinema, the writing of Murakami and the music of Janacek, Bach & Mahler plus countless others all play a significant role in forming my view of the world.

“Probably the highlight of my artistic career to date has been exhibiting work in Tokyo. I have been lucky enough to have four shows in a small venue in Japan; feedback and discussions with people from such a different cultural background can only help an individual grow and, hopefully, their artistic output develop too.”