Hong Kong - London
Nicholas Tang is an English independent painter and art historian, with his family roots from Hong Kong and Shanghai. As a traditionalist and figurative painter, his interest in painting developed from a young age, after his mother took him to visit the National Portrait Gallery in London, England, and he found that he “responded to few things in the way [he] responded to painting.” Though Nicholas began as a draughtsman, a teacher at his school in England introduced him to painting and etching. From there, Nicholas came to Florence to study under Charles Cecil, a teacher of portrait painting, and at Studio Escalier, after which he continued to develop his methods and painting independently.
His main focus now is in painting of portraits from life, as well as the tradition of history painting. After finding Il Palmerino by accident, he discovered that the studio here provides exactly what he requires. Because he prefers to paint from natural light, standing up, a “ridiculously tall window,” is a prequixite. The iconic window of Il Palmerino provides exactly that. The garden of Il Palmerino also provides inspiration for the natural background which Nicholas likes to add to his work, though he finds it too hot to paint outside in he July heat, “if one could design one’s own studio, from scratch, one should find the view, then build the studio around the view… so that when painting the background the painter simply turns to the window and just paints what he see from inside the studio” Il Palmerino and its studio have “given [him] the chance to paint in much better lighting than [he] ever has been able to before.”
Taking form on large canvases that allow for him to paint life-size, and sometimes even the entire figure full length, many of his works are more than a metre in length. When asked why he has chosen to paint on such a large scale, he explained that that painting life-size gives figures a unique presence, something he learned from Cecil, and that, when trying to depict life-size figures, there is “a limit to how small it can be.” Madalyn Dolney
Comments