How does Niki Purcell start a painting?
Most of Niki Purcell’s paintings begin outdoors, on the cliffs and coastline near her Wicklow/Wexford studio, before being developed and finished in the studio.
Gathering a painting’s starting point
Niki walks the coastline near her home regularly, often carrying a small sketchbook. A walk might produce a series of quick one- or two-minute sketches — just enough to hold onto a view, a particular cloud formation, or a quality of light before it changes. At other times she’ll simply stop and take in a view, committing it to memory, or take a reference photograph. All three — sketch, memory and photograph — feed into the paintings that follow.
She also paints on location, outdoors, when a subject calls for it, working directly from the view in front of her rather than from a reference gathered earlier.
In the studio
Back in the studio, a sketch, photograph or memory becomes the starting point for a painting in oils, built up on board, canvas or panel. Niki usually has more than one piece underway at a time — see Materials & Technique for more on why.
The aim throughout isn’t to reproduce the view exactly as a camera would. It’s to hold onto the feeling of that particular moment — the wind, the light, the stillness or movement of the sky — so it’s still there in the finished painting.
How long does a painting take?
There’s no fixed timeline — a painting can come together in a single afternoon, or take many weeks to finish. Smaller, more spontaneous pieces tend to hold onto the energy of a quick sketch and are often finished quickly; larger or more complex paintings are worked on over a longer period, often alongside other pieces on the go at the same time.
Related: her materials and technique · her training and background