As you look through the pictures feel free to click on any to see a larger version of them. Many of the pictures have information written below so you can get a feel for how a particular piece was conceived and made in to reality.
Standing Stone – Orkney
I painted this on return from Bhutan many years ago having seen the sunrise on one
of the highest peaks of the Himalayas. It was an awesome sight. I had no camera
with me but “photographed” it in my mind. So here it is.
Paintings 2003-2005 Acrylic on deep edge canvas
unless otherwise stated.
Waves after Storm
Dusk over Malvern
Northern Lights
Ring of Brodgar – Orkney Islands
Rip Tide
Sunset, Western Isles, Scotland
Sea Storm – Scotland
Artist: Nigel Groom
Medium: Acrylic on Canvas
Dimensions: 70 x 70 cms
Date: Worcester 6th October 2004
I envisaged two ancient standing stones or megalithic stones on a seashore at dusk with the sun behind clouds casting a shaft of light onto a glinting sea, an island looming in the distance.
The tide is on the turn and there are rivulets and pools of water. The sun is hidden behind a darkening and clouded sky, and in the heavens the moon is emptying, denoting ebb tide. There is a shaft of light, which although it appears to be cast from behind the dark clouds onto the glistening sea in the distance, also seems to be directed onto the stones.
There is a certain ambiguity about the stones, might they be figures – ancient, new?
Within the shaft of light is caught in flight a huge white bird hovering above the stones as if in benediction. Two other birds also circle overhead. Night’s black bird perhaps?
I see this “Turn of the Tide” as signifying something of the life force of rebirth, return, regeneration.
The painting was inspired by the landscape and seascape of the Orkney Islands, and the sense of a history and a people forged out of the raw relationship between earth, sea and sky.
Nigel Groom (November 2004)
Turn of the Tide (2)
Sunset over Malvern
Ebb Tide
Moon Tide
Namibian Desert
16. Red Roofs
Sunset Shore
The Waiting Boat
(50cmsx40cms)
The White Croft
Acrylic on board 112cmsx87cms 1998
70cmsx50cms 2006
76cmsx51cms 2006
51cmsx41cms 2006
Listen to Edward Elgar’s wonderful “Sea Pictures” sung by
the incomparable Janet Baker.
Cue the final song “The Swimmer” (Le Nageur) at 17’38”.
Oh, brave white horses! you gather and gallop, The storm sprite loosens the gusty reins; Now the stoutest ship were the frailest shallop In your hollow backs, or your high arch'd manes. I would ride as never a man has ridden In your sleepy swirling surges hidden, To gulfs foreshadow'd, through straits forbidden, Where no light wearies and no love wanes.
From the poem “The Swimmer” by Adam Lindsay Gordon
