Nigel Buxton

Nigel Buxton has been a practicing artist for 30 years. He trained at the Byam Shaw School of Art in London and then, in 1981, moved to New Zealand . He has developed a style of picturing that fuses painting and drawing to invoke a subtle evocation of space. The bulk of his work deals with still life and explores the way objects activate the space around them. In 1997 Buxton's interest in music created a more conceptual area for him to work in, and he has tackled subjects using the musical scores or operas as the starting point for imaginative works which deal with the emotive themes the composers present. His series ‘The Colour of Stars' and 'The Constellations' works more into abstraction and an interest in surface and illusory space and scale while locating the subject in our limited understanding of the cosmos. Nigel Buxton has worked at a variety of jobs from taxi driver in Sydney to auctioneer's assistant at Sotheby's and appraisal and valuation of old master drawings at Christies in London. During 1989-90 he taught painting, drawing and printmaking at the Ilam School of Art, University of Canterbury and from 1993-97 was Director of the CSA Gallery, overseeing its transformation into the Centre of Contemporary Art. In 1995 Nigel was awarded first prize in the Cranleigh Barton Drawing Award and in the same year was a finalist in the Wallace Art Award.