Viva Brighton Issue #65 July 2018
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ART<br />
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Focus on: Newhaven Breakwater<br />
By Nick Bush. Oil on board, 56cm x 29cm<br />
This is a painting of Newhaven breakwater,<br />
viewed from a little gap in the cliffs under Newhaven<br />
Fort. You can’t go on the breakwater anymore,<br />
but it’s dear to lots of people’s hearts as they used to<br />
fish from it, and I used to run along its arches when<br />
it was stormy.<br />
My studio is by Newhaven’s West Beach, underneath<br />
the fort where the tunnels come out, so I can<br />
see the breakwater from my window. I used to have<br />
a studio in Lewes but what I really liked was taking<br />
the train to Newhaven and painting the views. We<br />
moved here three years ago and I love the big open<br />
vistas, spacious landscapes and big skies. You can be<br />
up on the cliffs and down on the beach, so there are<br />
lots of different perspectives to take. I love that it’s a<br />
working port. Being just outside the South Downs<br />
National Park, all the stuff that can’t happen there<br />
happens here. Being able to paint the Downs as a<br />
backdrop to something like the incinerator, or a<br />
heap of recycled metal, is great subject matter.<br />
I’m inspired by 19th century Romantic painters,<br />
and artists who use a lot of oil paint. Painters from<br />
the ‘School of London’, in particular Kossoff and<br />
Auerbach, and the people who inspired them like<br />
Bomberg and Sickert. I’m a big fan of Constable<br />
rather than Turner, but it’s hard to be here and not<br />
think of Turner and boats. The local artist, Harold<br />
Mockford, who has spent a long time painting the<br />
ferry coming in and out of the harbour, has been a<br />
huge influence.<br />
I usually start ideas from a sketch or small painting<br />
that I’ve made. I don’t often set up in a big way<br />
outdoors – I find that everything gets blown over – I<br />
prefer being in the studio and working from memory.<br />
Recently I’ve been painting less on canvas and<br />
more on boards, especially cut-out boards. I’ll be<br />
showing quite a few of those at The Regency Town<br />
House in <strong>July</strong>. I’m really excited about showing in<br />
the big, empty, beautiful place. Hanging paintings<br />
on whitewashed walls can feel very sterile.<br />
As told to Lizzie Lower<br />
New Paintings of Newhaven, recent paintings by Nick<br />
Bush will be at The Regency Town House, Brunswick<br />
Square from the 17th – 22nd <strong>July</strong>, 12pm-6pm<br />
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