5 minute read
A PORTRAIT OF NIGEL
MOVING PICTURE
A PORTRAIT OF NIGEL
Nigel Redfern by Chris Scott
Nigel Redfern, who was the IT guy (and so much more) at GHP Legal for many years, died last year after a short illness. Everybody at GHP loved Nigel. He was kind and humorous and was always – always – willing to help when you were in trouble. He was one of those colleagues who make it a pleasure to come to work. After Nigel passed away, Consultant Solicitor Chris Scott decided to try to depict him in oils, and the result is this vibrant portrait which beautifully captures Nigel’s lopsided grin and twinkle of mischief.
Shropshire Lawyer talked to Chris to find out more.
SL: How long did you know Nigel?
CS: I think we first met in around 1999. He dealt with the first of many office moves. I was a sole practitioner at the time with an office in Ellesmere and was in the process of joining Brown & Lloyd. Nigel was employed by Brown & Lloyd as a general factotum. …basically anything that anyone couldn’t or didn’t know what or how to do was left to Nigel. I think I might be right in saying that I’ve ended up working at every office the firm has had over the years including Ellesmere, Shrewsbury, Oswestry (Willow St) and Oswestry (The Cross), and Llangollen and Nigel moved and set me up every time.
SL: Do you have a particular memory of him that sticks in your mind?
CS: I have hundreds of great memories of Nigel. One particular memory that springs to mind is when I was based at the Shrewsbury office. Basically the office existed because of the requirement to have an office within a mile or so of Shrewsbury Court and police station in order to qualify the respective Rotas. Our office was situated on the third floor of a building which was down a quiet street that no-one could ever find, and to get to it you had to go through two sets of locked doors. To say the office was quiet would be an understatement. Nigel loved the occasional trip out to the office to do ‘IT Maintenance’ or whatever, and often he’d turn up in shorts and a colourful shirt. During the day he would pop out fairly regularly for his little treats which consisted largely of sweets and coca cola. His needs were pretty meagre but doing this he was as happy as Larry…! The situation was not greatly dissimilar in Llangollen (except he was rather partial to the ice creams there), and of course he travelled around everywhere on public transport.
SL: Were you asked to do a portrait or was it a spontaneous urge?
CS: It was really something I wanted to have a go at without any clear objective. I find that it helps in the process of coming to terms with what has happened. Obviously I had to rely mainly on photos and a little bit of memory but good photos of him were surprisingly thin on the ground. The one I used mainly was I think taken during the annual Movember ritual when he had grown a Mexican bandit-type moustache.
SL: What was your process?
CS: I must have made twenty or more attempts all of which ended up getting scraped off (they were in oils). Some of the attempts ended up with Nigel looking more like Homer Simpson. On one attempt however a cheeky little grin (which was characteristic of him) appeared from somewhere. I don’t think it was anything I tried to do consciously. At that point I pretty much just left the picture as it was. So to be honest what you see now ended up more by luck than judgement.
SL: What’s your art background? Have you trained or do you make it up as you go along? Or a bit of both?
CS: Painting and drawing has been a hobby of mine for about 20 years or so. In my case if you do enough paintings you occasionally end up with something half-decent.
My father painted a bit and I think that is where I first became interested in art. In recent years I have benefitted from YouTube where there are countless tutorial videos. I guess this is my main source of training. I tend to lean more towards landscapes or cityscapes. In terms of subjects I like to attempt to concentrate on ordinary / everyday day scenes and attempt to make them interesting. I would like to be able paint plein air (ie outside from life rather than from a studio) but haven’t yet got the self-confidence although I’m working on it.
