Alex. Nisbet
A Creative Journey
I have always been fascinated by drawing and mark making and as a child I drew, painted and made things. My Father was a talented musician with his own very successful Scottish Country Dance Band and my particular creative journey also started out in music, albeit playing in a rock band in the 60's/70's !
I wanted to go to Art School and in 1974 I was accepted into Edinburgh College of Art to study Drawing and Painting, while there I was fortunate to meet and be taught by Dennis Peploe, Elizabeth Blackadder, James Cumming, George Donald and David Evans.
Today I still make music and paint full time, from the 70's to today I have been lucky enough to keep both creative forces on board, they are my ying and my yang, if there is an underlying theme to my work it is just that, contrast, balance and the forces of nature.
Newtons Third Law - 'every action has an equal and opposite reaction' generally underpins the way I work and the end product I achieve. I like that the physical world is in balance and I will always try to reach a compositional balance in an image, that image may very often start with a deliberate and conscious imbalance as a means to tip it into the 'unknown'. This way I feel that I push myself to explore the very nature of picture making and painting in particular.
I still get excited by the endless possibilities that flow from a brush loaded with paint, I resist pure abstraction and choose to paint and make images of the world around us, I am inspired by the ordinary and the extraordinary, hoping to capture an enduring moment, a moment in time.
I hope you enjoy the selection of work on show here. If you have any queries or questions then please contact me on the site contact link above, thank you.
Alexander Nisbet
Studied Drawing and Painting- Edinburgh College of Art 1974 -1978
Andrew Grant Travelling Scholarship to Sri Lanka 1978
Awarded Post Graduate Study – Edinburgh College of Art 1978 – 1979
Joined the ‘Glasgow League of Artists’ – 1980
Elected Professional Member – Society of Scottish Artists 1982
Council Member – Printmakers Workshop Edinburgh 1985 – 1988
Scottish Arts Council Print Commission, 1988
“City of Edinburgh” Award, Royal Scottish Academy -1990
Member of Council. Society of Scottish Artists – 1993 -1996
“Premier One” Award, Society of Scottish Artists – 1993
“Scottish Arts Club” Award, Society of Scottish Artists – 1996
Set up Studio in Nicosia, Cyprus - 2008
Set up Studio in The Artists Shed, Queanbeyan, NSW, Australia - 2011
WORKS IN PRIVATE COLLECTIONS IN –
UK, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan , U.S.A. Cyprus,
WORKS IN COLLECTIONS OF –
Arts in Fife
Bank of Scotland
British Council
City Art Centre, Edinburgh
City of Nottingham
Edinburgh College of Art
Edinburgh University
Leeds City Council
Motherwell District Council
Napier University, Edinburgh
NHS Borders
NHS Grampian
NHS Lothian
Pharmaceutical Society
Royal Bank of Scotland
Scottish Arts Council
Scottish Equitable
Regular Exhibitor in mixed exhibitions by the Royal Scottish Academy,
Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour and the Society of Scottish Artists.
ONE MAN SHOWS –
1983 – Edinburgh University Staff Club
1988 – Edinburgh College of Art
1990 – Peacock Artspace Aberdeen – ‘Unstill Life’
1993 – Traverse Edinburgh – ‘Actor Series’
1998 – Scottish Arts Club, Edinburgh – ‘ Times Tables’
2003 – Flat Cat Gallery, Lauder – Recent Prints
2009 – ArtCyprus Gallery, Nicosia – ‘New Images of Cyprus’
2010 – ArtCyprus Gallery, Nicosia – ‘In a Cyprus Museum’