NINA MURDOCH

Nina Murdoch, born 1970 in London, trained at the Slade School of Fine Art and at the Royal Academy Schools, and won the inaugural Threadneedle Prize in 2008. 

 

Brought up within a family of architects, I first met Nina through her exhibition Shedding Light at Marlborough Fine Art in 2011 where I immediately engaged with her and her art.  Working in the Renaissance method of egg tempera on board primed with many layers of gesso, her inspiration was that of street corners, empty car parks where a shimmer of light caught on a pool of oil, and London steps.  Old street maps often gave the paintings their titles: Prawle Point, Hewer’s Meadows and Mr. Phil Pincheon’s Land and whilst seemingly empty one can feel the inhabitants have just moved on.

 

Applying many layers of translucent colours, 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. The viewer can discern a multitude of colours on close inspection as you are drawn into them.  Murdoch’s recent work has moved increasingly towards abstraction, with reference to the geometry of the play and elusiveness of light and shade in urban settings. In simplifying the subject matter, she has allowed room for the intensity of the colours to take over and assume an articulate importance of their own bringing a luminosity to her work.

 

Nina’s work is held in many private and public collections including Barclays Capital, Gartmore Investment, Hiscox plc, Mercury Asset Management, Unilever, UCL Art Museum, Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation, UCL Art Museum and the David Roberts Foundation.