Nina Murdoch
“Nina paints exceptional moments of light, but also moments of vision, when appearances are transfigured by the play of light into something beyond the ordinary. Is this a revelation of divinity or some sort of hidden spiritual nature not normally apparent in everyday life? Perhaps.”
- Andrew Lambirth
Preferred Light: Dusk
Nina Murdoch’s paintings represent the broadcast of light across a surface – usually an urban corner, possibly a bridge. Increasingly homing-in on the elemental interaction of the light falling across the walls or onto the ground, her work verges on the abstract, simply evoking the light’s path and its origins.
Nina has developed her technique with egg tempera on gesso panel over twenty years - traditional materials used by the masters of the early Italian Renaissance and their forefathers. Layers of colour are differentiated by a glazing medium, then overpainted. There may be as many as 40 layers of tempera on one board, as Nina constantly pulls back the layers. The finished picture will not display signs of the paint archaeology that has gone into its creation as the final image is exquisitely considered.
These works convey light and the balance of cool to warm colours. When working with egg tempura she keeps closely in touch with the white gesso ground, as her main source of light. These new watercolours the titanium white allows this same concentration. Instantly becoming more abstract, the works build on Nina’s precise practice.
Nina trained at the Slade and at the Royal Academy Schools. She has won numerous awards including the inaugural Threadneedle Prize and the ING Discerning Eye Prize. Having enjoyed sell-out exhibitions at Marlborough Fine Art and The Fine Art Society, Nina’s work is held by important collections such as the David Roberts Foundation and Hiscox.
Minutes No 2, 21/22
Watercolour 1
Watercolour 2
About
Nina Murdoch trained at the Slade School of Fine Art (1989-93) and at the Royal Academy Schools (1993-96), and was the winner of the inaugural Threadneedle Prize (2008).
Her work is characterised by a meticulous technique resembling that of the early Renaissance, working in egg tempera on boards primed with gesso. Applying layers of translucent colour, sometimes scraping or sanding them down to apply further coats of paint, the surfaces of her paintings acquire a glowing richness of tones that responds to the light, and illuminate the often bare and mysterious street or architectural views that she chooses for her subjects.
