Nicholas Romeril Over Sea

N I C H O L AS RO M E RI L Over Sea

Copyright © Chris Beetles Ltd 2016 8 & 10 Ryder Street St James’s London SW1Y 6QB 020 7839 7551 gallery@chrisbeetles.com www.chrisbeetles.com ISBN 978-1-905738-74-8 Catalogue in publication data is available from the British Library Edited by Fiona Nickerson and David Wootton Written by Alexander Beetles and David Wootton Design by Jeremy Brook of Graphic Ideas Photography by Julian Huxley-Parlour Reproduction by www.cast2create.com Colour separation and printing by Geoff Neal Litho Limited

NI C H OL A S RO ME R IL Over Sea

Front cover: Small Splash, Large Roller [33] (detail) This page: Warm Evening Dune [16] (detail) Back endpaper: Wisps & Wave [25] Back cover: Folded [05]

CH R IS BEE TLE S GA LL ERY

NIC HO LAS ROMER IL Biography

N ICH O LAS RO M ERI L Over Sea More immersive than ever before, Nicholas Romeril’s new work brings the viewer face to face with the sea.

Moisture appears to splash up, and spray blows against the skin. Attuned to the complexity of marine movement, Romeril provides something of a taxonomy of waves, and relishes representing them in their dynamic variety.

Dark walls of water thrust forcefully forward as they tower above intricately marbled ripples. An efflorescence of intersecting spouts and spurts flies high into the air.

Light both dyes the waves and distinguishes their course.

Rocks divide them and dissipate their power.

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Nicholas Romeril explores not only the appearance but also the experience of the sea. In order to do this, he adapts his characteristically accurate mimeticism to convey each particular phenomenon as distinctively as possible.

Even at its most precise, his mark-making captures the vitality and mutability of nature by allowing the eye to register elements that are indeterminate or unfocussed.

Occasionally, he will broaden this into a generally atmospheric impressionism that stands comparison with long-established masters. More frequently, he will introduce texture by applying paint more thickly or – an innovation – adding some of his own hair, while he achieves similar results in smaller studies by mixing media.

Neither is Nicholas afraid to pare back his visual language to near abstraction when necessary as, for example, in order to convey the aquatic depths.

He paints expanses of saturated blue, and makes them all the more intense by punctuating them with passages of white, to render light, or enlivening them with swift flicks of red, to indicate a shoal of fish. The effect could hardly be more different, in terms of space or atmosphere, than his representations of the surface above.

Hardly more different – yet Nicholas excels at representing contrast, as can be seen here in the opposition of the persistent movement of the sea to the solidity of rock. Among the present works, solid rock is shown both as cliffs eroded into caves and as boulders upon the shore. Through the interpretation of sun and shadow, Nicholas defines the weight, suggests the scale and enhances the colour of the stone, and so provides an experience of landscape that is powerfully palpable.

It is perhaps because of this strong physical presence that these paintings are able to surprise and tease as well as please. Their illusionism encourages the viewer to inhabit an environment that is apparently empty and possibly remote – and so get away from it all. At the same time, it plays with his or her expectations, in terms of scale and standpoint. How large – for instance – are those caves, and what lies beyond? It is a credit to the absorbing achievement of Nicholas Romeril that his images encourage such belief and such engagement.

David Wootton

Beautiful, Power [30]

A native of the Channel Islands, Nicholas Romeril captures the essence of what is central to so many islanders’ lives. His striking motifs of boulders, sand dunes and foaming seas create beautiful and dramatic visions of pristine coastlines.

Nicholas Romeril was born in Jersey, in the Channel Islands on 11 October 1967. Between 1988 and 1993, he attended Camberwell College of Art and Design in London, obtaining a BA (Hons) in Fine Art and an MA in Printmaking. During his course at Camberwell, he won a travel scholarship from the Royal Overseas League International Competition, allowing him to travel and paint in Mexico. On his return, he published and exhibited his work for the Royal Overseas League in St James’s, London. As a student at Camberwell, he also exhibited his work in shows in London, Edinburgh and Lincolnshire, and in two solo shows in his native Jersey.

Following the completion of his studies, Nicholas remained in London for a number of years. Whilst there, he painted cityscapes of the capital, focusing on crowd scenes from above, examining the patters and rhythms which formed from bustling tourist venues. However, his focus began to shift to views of the sky, as they were ‘the most natural thing I could see in London’.

At Camberwell, he had developed a close association with the Britart scene of the early 1990s and, on leaving, shared a studio in Minet Road, Brixton, with such fellow artists as Damien Hirst, Cecily Brown and Marcus Harvey.

In 1994, while also working from his Brixton studio, Romeril was employed as an artist and designer for Peter Billington, an interior designer based in Battersea.

During this time, Romeril was commissioned to design, make and install 52 Verre Eglomise mirrors for the Sultan of Brunei’s London home in Park Lane. After a few years, he became frustrated at his inability to see a whole vista in London, and was drawn back to his native Jersey.

Following six months travelling around South East Asia and Australia, he arrived back in Jersey in 1996.

Setting up a studio upon his return to Jersey, Nicholas began lecturing on the Art and Design courses at Highlands School of Art, Jersey. In 2001, he completed his Certificate in Education at the University of Southampton. In addition to teaching, his return to Jersey has allowed him to develop his detailed and intense paintings of the island’s coastline. His work stems from his close relationship with nature and Jersey itself and, in 2005, his work on the subject of the Jersey cow was selected for ‘Herd of Charing Cross?’, an artistic incarnation of work to raise awareness of the importance of the island’s heritage. This involved a series of large-scale images of the iconic breed hung on a number of building facades and across streets in the Charing Cross area of St Helier, Jersey. In December 2012, he was named one of four local Jersey people to become an ambassador for the Jersey Tourism Campaign, alongside singer Nerina Pallot, tour guide Arthur Lamy and oyster farmer Chris Le Masurier.

Since 1996, Nicholas has regularly held shows in Jersey and London, and since 2009 has also held solo shows in Switzerland and France. In 2006, he exhibited a collection of paintings he created whilst living alone on the tiny reef of Les Minquiers, located about nine miles south of Jersey. In addition to his paintings, he has produced a number of sculptures and installations for public and private collections, working in media ranging from stainless steel and powdered aluminium to used horseshoes. His work hangs in corporate and private collections in Europe, North America and the Far East.

Chris Beetles Gallery has held two successful solo shows of Nicholas’s work – ‘Sand Surf Stone’ in March 2013 and ‘Beachcomber’ in July 2014 – and also made a special feature of his work at the Palm Beach Art and Antiques Fair, Miami, Florida, in 2015.

Nicholas Romeril lives in Jersey with his wife and children.

Alexander Beetles

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02 F IS H WAVE Signed Stainless steel with oil on shaped board 40 3â „4 x 67 x 5 1â „4 inches

01 DEEP BLU E Signed, inscribed with title and dated 2012-13 on reverse Oil on linen 50 x 63 inches

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03 MU FFLED EXIST E N C E Signed and inscribed with title on reverse Oil on linen 59 1⁄4 x 59 1⁄4 inches

04 CO LD I MM E RS IO N Signed and inscribed with title on reverse Oil on linen 59 1⁄4 x 59 1⁄4 inches

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06 S ACRE D H ID E AWAYS Signed Signed and inscribed with title on reverse Oil on linen 24 x 35 3⁄4 inches

05 F OL D ED (opposite) Signed Signed and inscribed with title on reverse Oil on linen 47 3⁄4 x 39 1⁄2 inches

09 E XC IT E D WAV E Signed Acrylic and coloured pencil on card 7 x 10 inches

08 CO NFU S ED FOAM Signed Acrylic and coloured pencil on card 15 1⁄2 x 11 inches

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10 CO RBI E RE , BLU E , CAL M Signed Acrylic and coloured pencil on card 5 x 8 inches

07 L’H OPITA L , L ES MI N IQ U IR E S , E V E N I N G Signed Signed and inscribed with title on reverse Oil and artist’s hair on linen 39 3⁄4 x 47 1⁄2 inches

11 CO RBI E RE , DARK , E VE NI NG Signed Acrylic and coloured pencil on card 5 x 8 inches

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12 T WO CAV ES Signed Signed and inscribed with title on reverse Oil on canvas 15 x 12 inches

13 H ID DE N BAYS Signed Signed and inscribed with title on reverse Oil on canvas 15 x 12 inches

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16 WAR M E VE NI NG D U NE Signed Signed and inscribed with title on reverse Oil and artist’s hair on linen 31 3⁄4 x 47 1⁄2 inches

14 G OLDEN STON E Signed Signed and inscribed with title on reverse Oil on canvas 8 x 10 inches 15 SA LTY H AZE Signed Signed and inscribed with title on reverse Oil on canvas 10 x 8 inches

18 CO L LA P S E D RO LL ER S T UDY Signed Acrylic and coloured pencil on card, 7 x 10 inches 17 COL L AP SED ROL L E R Signed Signed, inscribed with title and and dated 2016 on reverse Oil on board 10 x 14 inches

19 CR A S H I N G EN ERG Y Signed Signed, inscribed with title and dated 2016 on reverse Oil on linen 22 1â „4 x 30 inches

20 S OF T OVE R HAR D Signed Signed, inscribed with title and dated 2016 on reverse Oil on canvas 12 x 16 inches

21 S WAMPE D Signed Signed, inscribed with title and dated 2016 on reverse Oil on linen 10 x 14 inches

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22 RO L L OV ER S U NSE T Signed Signed, inscribed with title and dated 2016 on reverse Oil on canvas 8 x 10 inches

23 GO L D EN DANCE Signed Signed, inscribed with title and dated 2016 on reverse Oil on canvas 16 x 20 inches

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24 S T R A IG H T F O RWA R D S TU DY Signed Signed, inscribed with title and dated 2016 on reverse Oil on board 10 x 14 inches

25 W IS P S & WAV E Signed Signed, inscribed with title and dated 2016 on reverse Oil on linen 18 1⁄4 x 22 1⁄4 inches

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26 WAV E VE R SU S RO CK Signed Signed, inscribed with title and dated 2016 on reverse Oil on linen 24 x 32 inches

27 WAV E VE R SU S RO CK ST U DY Signed Signed, inscribed ‘Wave versus Rock’ and dated 2016 on reverse Oil on board 12 x 16 inches

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28 ENERGY Signed Signed, inscribed with title and dated 2016 on reverse Oil on linen 43 3⁄4 x 47 1⁄2 inches

29 F RE SH BE ADS Signed Signed and inscribed with title on reverse Oil on linen 43 1⁄2 x 43 1⁄2 inches

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21 30 BEAUT IFUL , P O WE R Signed Signed, inscribed with title and dated 2016 on reverse Oil and artist’s hair on linen 10 x 20 inches

31 B IG DA R K WAV E (lower left) Signed Signed, inscribed with title and dated 2016 on reverse Oil on canvas 12 x 16 inches

32 S M A L L S P L A S H , L A RG E RO L L ER (lower right) S TU DY Signed Acrylic and coloured pencil on card 7 x 10 inches

33 S MALL S PLAS H, L ARGE RO LL E R Signed Signed, inscribed with title and dated 2016 on reverse Oil on linen 43 3⁄4 x 51 1⁄2 inches

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35 BE AU T IF U L, ABOVE S T U DY Signed Signed, inscribed with title and dated 2016 on reverse Oil and artist’s hair on canvas 8 x 10 inches

34 BE AU T IF U L, ABOVE (opposite) Signed Signed, inscribed with title and dated 2016 on reverse Oil on linen 71 1⁄4 x 59 inches Nicholas Romeril sketching in the open air between La Saline and Frémont Point, Jersey

CHRIS BEETLES GALLERY 8 & 10 Ryder Street, St James’s London SW1Y 6QB 020 7839 7551 gallery@chrisbeetles.com

www.chrisbeetles.com