STANDING in front of a freshly-prepared black canvas hung on a white wall in his Wickham studio, Nigel Milsom is keen to talk about his work. He shows a sketch of a subject he plans to paint on the new canvas, in preparation for an exhibition of new paintings and multimedia works at The Lock-Up.
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“I painted Charlie here,” he says as we ponder the massive canvas. “Basically I was up the ladder most of the time. I’d get back down and look, go up again, or drop a paintbrush.”
Milsom’s painting of colourful Sydney barrister Charles Waterstreet, called Judo house pt 6 (the white bird), was done swiftly. He only began the project two weeks before the Archibald deadline, with stormy Newcastle weather creating havoc in his studio.
After twice making the finals of the Archibald, in 2010 and 2012, Milsom’s painting of Waterstreet took the big prize, worth $100,000. It was announced on July 16, 2015, Milsom’s 40th birthday.
Waterstreet was a longtime family friend, who had also represented Milsom in court.
The victory set off a year of public engagements for Milsom, with conversations at every Archibald exhibit around the country. As welcome as the recognition was, it was also a distraction for a career artist like Milsom.
I compare it to a musician touring with a new album. Milsom counters: “It’s like a single; like you’re a one-hit wonder for a year and you’ve just got to wear it.”
Of course, Milsom is not a one-hit wonder. A University of Newcastle graduate and University of NSW fine arts masters graduate, he won the Sulman Prize in 2012 and the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize in 2013 along with his Archibald success.
He’s not a stranger to the general public, having also been in the media spotlight for his involvement in a robbery in Sydney in 2012 while under the influence of drugs.
He pled guilty, and served time in Cessnock jail before being released in July 2014 as the NSW Court of Criminal Appeals found serious errors in the sentencing process.
It was late in 2014 when Milsom and Jessi England, director of The Lock-Up, had conversations about Milsom presenting a show at the heritage-listed contemporary arts venue which served as a jail until 1982.
“We have loved Nigel’s work from the outset,” England says. “We think he’s a remarkable artist, which is why we approached him.”
And thus, prior to his greater fame, Milsom was committed to a show of original, almost experimental works, in his first-ever solo exhibition in his home city.
“I’m a Newcastle artist, so I thought, why not have a show here,” Milsom says. “It’s not really a commercial show, but that doesn’t matter.
“There’s no pressure on me to sell any work. I don’t think there’s a market up here anyway. It meant I could put together a show, because of the space and the set-up. It seemed like a bit of a challenge, instead of showing things in a white cube.”
Milsom will show new paintings and structural sculptures, particularly made for The Lock-Up’s cells.
“The idea for the cells came from when I was in jail,” he says. “It’s so anti-human, post-human almost, because everything is just keys, and doors, and metal and concrete. The only sort of time nature interrupts that is through shadows in your cell at night, or hearing bird calls.
“And so, not that it’s about me being in jail, I just had to open up about what it was like to be in a cell. You’re isolated from nature ... it’s built to separate you from nature, even the grass in jail is plastic. It’s like fake grass. It was just something that came to me. I didn’t have to think about it.”
Birds have been a frequent theme in Milsom’s work – even the Archibald-winning Waterstreet painting, depicts his subject with claw-like hands and is called, in parentheses, The White Bird.
“As a kid I would constantly go out and watch birds. It opened up a different world,” he says.
Familiar faces are another repeating feature of Milsom’s work, especially when it comes to the Archibald. Milsom reached the finals with portraits of Adam Cullen, the late artist who was a friend, and Kerry Crowley, who is his art dealer.
“I’ve always painted people I knew and it didn’t feel like I was painting an Archibald picture,” he says.
“I think when you are painting an Archibald picture you kind of end up falling flat. I think you put too much pressure on yourself to get everything right. I’ve seen heaps of people do it.
“You’ve got to almost paint somone who’s familiar to you. So you know, that’s the benefit, it doesn’t matter how you paint them or how it turns out because you’re going to do it anyway. It’s more natural.
“People pick personalities they don’t know. They are the worst paintings they’ve ever made.”
Milsom’s studio is bright with natural light, white brick walls and white plasterboard with a clean concrete floor (except for paint tubes).
While chilly in the winter, it warmly reflects the character of its occupant – neatly paired shoes on every step of the stairway to the mezzanine, a 1973 HQ Kingswood in mint condition, an extensive bookcase of selected literature from The Readers Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds to A Guided Tour of the Collected Works of C.G. Jung to Van Gogh: The Life by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith.
The music collection follows the same creative thread, from Gang of Youths to Townes Van Zandt, from Laura Marling to Nirvana.
The influence of the likes of artist Martin Sharp and art curator Nick Waterlow, both now deceased, on a young Milsom in Sydney are recalled. Waterlow gave Milsom, a uni student desperate for work, a job in the Ivan Dougherty Gallery at the uni.
“Nick didn’t paint, but he loved painting,” Milsom says of Waterlow’s influence. “They [Sharp and Waterlow] knew how hard it was, to be a young artist. If you were to keep going, you needed that.”
Art has been his passion, no matter the risk.
“I feel just like an art student, you know. I think it gets harder as you get older. You’re kind of always insecure, really,” he says.
Nigel Milsom’s exhibit, Judo-House Pt. 6 (The White Bird) opens Friday at The Lock-Up.
Milsom in conversation with Myf Warhurst is 6pm, August 24, at The Lock-Up (tickets via eventbrite).
- Jim Kellar