NICHOLAS BLOWERS Edgeland Edgeland was a term coined by the British geographer Marion Shard and it refers to the overlooked places on our doorstep, the urban edge. In our towns and cities it is a place where the urban and rural negotiate and renegotiate their borders. The Tasmanian Edgeland exists in its own unique way and much of it would be familiar the world over; the dilapidated remnants of human endeavour are there to be found alongside the mental asylums, Retail Parks, ruins, recycling centres, wasteland and bridges with “scribble pad” tagging on their pylons. If our early years form our imagination then mine was formed in places such as these. The Edgeland was where you played and sought out adventure, the outskirts of town offered the promise of mystery. It is far removed from the “heritage core” of the inner city or the important "getaway" destinations of established beauty. It doesn't offer the promise of Heritage walks, Coastal walks, Bush walks or Art walks. And it doesn't have the sanctioned access of the landscaped council park. To be observed enjoying these places engenders no suspicion at all but it is a very different story when wandering on the fringe. Observe the expression on the face of the car driver when he passes you on the main Road out of town as you stroll down a well-worn “desire path” into scrub land and it says “up to no Good!”. And why would you be skirting the boundary of a retail park or semi-derelict mental asylum with your camera? In fact to take a walk outside of the urban centre into the fringe of any town and city is often to be met with barbed wire and suspicion; A slightly subversive pursuit, where it is possible to find a unique feeling of remoteness. Over the past winter I have undertaken a number of walks and often the things I have observed on those trips; buildings, bridge pylons or man-made structures are weathered and scarred with the vagaries of life and reflect my interest in the grubby and prosaic. The neoromantic painter, John Piper, described the act of civilisation being claimed back by nature as the “pleasing state of decay.” These places are imbued with a sense of the previous inhabitants and show people’s lives continuing to play out against them. Within the overlooked and marginal places of the city there is a great tradition in wandering and observing. It is possible to reconnect with an earlier literary tradition via contemporary writers Ian Sinclair, Stuart Home and the historian Peter Acroyd to writers such as Daniel Defoe, William Blake, Thomas de Quincey and Robert Louis Stevenson. The Psychogeographer Ian Sinclair's book “London Orbital” traces a journey he made on foot circling the M25 and it is this change of geographical focus and imaginative reworking of the city that interests me. Within this tradition there is mystery beneath the apparently banal surfaces of everyday life and the focus is often on the fringe elements of the city. These writers have in common a connection with London, of urban and rural wandering and often employ Gothic imagery to symbolise the mystery beneath the modern city. Nicholas Blowers
Nicholas Blowers Freestyle 2013 oil on paper, framed 61 x 104cm $4,200
Nicholas Blowers Brewery 2013 oil on paper, framed 89 x 85cm $5,000
Nicholas Blowers Asylum Bridge, New Norfolk 2013 oil on paper, framed 48 x 79cm $3,200
Nicholas Blowers Breaststroke 2013 oil on paper, framed 61 x 80cm $3,500
Nicholas Blowers DF + JD 2013 oil on paper, framed 108 x 108cm $5,500
Nicholas Blowers Jordan River Bridge Pylon 2013 oil on paper, framed 57 x 104cm $4,200
Nicholas Blowers Urban Occult Markings 2013 oil on paper, framed 57 x 104cm $4,200
Nicholas Blowers Tower 2013 oil on canvas, framed 81 x 75cm $4,000
Nicholas Blowers Shadow Man, Winter morning 2013 oil on canvas, framed 85 x 62 cm overall $3,700
Nicholas Blowers The Wall 2013 oil on canvas, framed 91.5 x 105cm overall $5,500
Nicholas Blowers Road Stop 2013 oil on canvas, framed 61.5 x 78 cm overall $3,500
Nicholas Blowers Downpour 2013 oil on canvas, framed 85 x 62 cm overall $3,700
Nicholas Blowers Tangled Copse, New Norfolk 2013 oil on canvas, framed 85 x 62 cm overall $3,700
Nicholas Blowers Tree. Storm. Sun 2013 oil on canvas, framed 26 x 32 cm overall $1,200
Nicholas Blowers New Norfolk Block, Winter 2013 oil on canvas, framed 26 x 32 cm overall $1,200
Nicholas Blowers Copse, New Norfolk 2013 oil on canvas, framed 23 x 42.5 cm overall $1,300
Nicholas Blowers Willow Court 2013 oil on canvas, framed 23 x 32.5 cm overall $1,200
NICHOLAS BLOWERS 1972
Born in the U.K, lives and works in Tasmania
Education 1991- 1994
Southampton Institute, Hampshire, UK, BA Honours, Fine Art
1989 – 1991
Braintree College, Essex, UK, BTEC Art & Design
Solo Exhibitions 2013
Edgeland, Bett Gallery, Hobart
2012
Recent Paintings, Bett Gallery, Hobart Ephemera, Mick Gallery, Sydney
2009
Rivulet, Boutwell Draper Gallery, Sydney Regrowth, Bett Gallery, Hobart
2008
Narcissus, Dickerson Gallery, Sydney,
2007
Recent works, Dickerson Gallery, Melbourne
2006
Recent Works, Dickerson Gallery, Sydney Recent Works, Dickerson Gallery, Melbourne
2003
Coastline Figures, FX Art & Framing, Sydney
Selected Group Exhibitions 2011
Preview Exhibition & Honours Award Exhibition Group show, Mick Gallery, Sydney
2008
Group show, Boutwell Draper Gallery, Sydney
2007
Art Melbourne 07, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne Land, Sea and Sky, Dickerson Gallery, Sydney Land, Sea and Sky, Dickerson Gallery, Melbourne
2006
Art Melbourne 06, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne Black & White, Dickerson Gallery, Sydney
2005
Gallery Artists, Dickerson Gallery, Sydney Off the Wall, Art Sydney 05
Awards and Grants 2013
Hutchins Art prize, Tasmania Adelaide Perry Drawing Prize, South Australia
2012
Glover Art Prize, Tasmania
2011
Hobart City Art Prize, Tasmania Waterhouse Natural History Art Prize, Adelaide Museum,S A Glover Art Prize, Tasmania
2010
Kedumba Drawing Award,NSW
Glover Art Prize, Tasmania 2009
Paddington Art Prize (winner), NSW Glover Art Prize, Tasmania
2008
Fleurieu Art Prize, SA Glover Art Prize, Tasmania
2007
Paddington Art Prize (winner), NSW Kings School Art Prize (winner), NSW Waterhouse Natural History Art Prize, Adelaide Museum (short-listed, Highly commended), SA
2006
Doug Moran Portrait Prize, Mitchell Library (short-listed), NSW
2005
Archibald prize Salon de Refuses Finalist, S.H.Ervin Gallery, NSW 54th Blake Prize, Sir Hermann Black Gallery (short-listed),NSW Art on the Rocks, NSW
Collections Artbank Parliament House collection Macquarie Bank collection Selected Bibliography Art Collector, Oct- Dec 2011, What Now? Studio International, June 2008 “Rising Stars�, Belle Magazine, April/May 2007 Blackhouse, M, The Saturday Age, 24 March 200 Webb,P,Preview, The Age, 18 March 2007 Australian House & Garden, Dec 2006 Australian Art Collector, The Art of Matter, Judy Ostergaard, Smart Art, Carrie Lumby, Issue 37, July/Sept 2005