Having
graduated from art college, Nicolas Trudgian spent many years as a
professional illustrator before turning to a career in fine art painting.
His crisp style of realism, attention to detail, compositional skills and
bright use of colours, immediately found favour with collectors and demand
for his original work soared on both sides of the Atlantic. Today, more
than a decade after becoming a fine art painter, Nicolas Trudgian is
firmly established within a tiny, elite group of aviation artists whose
works are genuinely collected world-wide. When
he paints an aircraft you can be sure he has researched it in every detail
and when he puts it over a particular airfield, the chances are he has
paid it a recent visit. Even when he paints a sunset over a tropical
island, or mist hanging over a valley in China, most probably he has seen
it with his own eyes.
Nick was born and raised in the
seafaring city of Plymouth, the port from which the Pilgrim Fathers set
sail in 1620, and where Sir Francis Drake played bowls while awaiting the
Spanish Armada. Growing up in a house close to the railway station within
a busy military city, the harbour always teeming with naval vessels and
the skies above resonating with the sounds of naval aircraft, it was not
at all surprising the young Nick became fascinated with trains, boats and
aircraft. It was from his father, himself a talented
artist, that Nick acquired his love of drawing and surrounded by so much
that was inspiring, there was never a shortage of ideas for pictures. His
talent began to show at an early age and although he did well enough at
school, he always spent a disproportionate amount of time drawing. People
talked about him becoming a Naval officer or an architect but in 1975
Nick's mind was made up. When he told his careers teacher he wanted to go
to art school the man said, 'Now come on, what do you really want to
do?"
After leaving school Nick began a
one-year foundation course at the Plymouth College of Art. Now armed with
an impressive portfolio containing paintings of jet aircraft, trains, even
wildlife, he was immediately accepted at every college he applied to join.
He chose a course at the Falmouth College of Art in Cornwall specialising
in technical illustration and paintings of machines and vehicles for
industry. It was perfect for Nick, and he was to become one of the star
pupils. One of the lecturers commented at the time: "Every college
needs someone with a talent like Nick to raise the standards sky high; he
carried all the other students along with him, and created an effect which
will last for years to come." Two weeks after leaving art college
Nick blew every penny he had on a trip to South Africa to ride the great
steam trains across the desert, sketching them at every opportunity.
Returning to England, in best traditions of all young
artists, he struggled to make a living. Paintings by an unknown artist
didn't fetch much despite the painstaking effort and time Nick put into
each work, so when the college he had recently left offered him a job as a
lecturer, he jumped at the chance. The money was good and he discovered
that he really enjoyed teaching.
Throughout the 1970s Nick was much
involved with a railway preservation society near Plymouth and it was
through the railway society that he had his first pictures reproduced as
prints. But Nick felt he needed to advance his career and in summer 1985
Nick moved away from Cornwall to join an energetic new design studio in
Wiltshire. Here he painted detailed artwork for many major companies
including Rolls Royce, General Motors, Volvo Trucks, Alfa Romeo and, to
his delight, the aviation and defence industries. He remembers the job as
exciting though stressful, often requiring him to work right through the
night to meet a client's deadline. Here he learned to be disciplined and
fast.Towards the end of the 1980's Nick had the chance to work for the
Military Gallery. This was the break that for years he had been striving
towards and with typical enthusiasm, flung himself into his new role.
After completing a series of aviation posters, including a gigantic
painting to commemorate the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Royal Air
Force, Nick's first aviation scene to be published as a limited edition
was launched by the Military Gallery in 1991. Despite the fact he was
unknown in the field, it was an immediate success.
