ODIHAM ART GROUP
Featured Artist
Every month we try to feature an OAG member and share their artist story.
If you are a member of OAG and would like to take part in this feature please contact the Website manager.
Nick Hithersay
Alongside a career in business and IT, Nick’s creative endeavours were restricted for many years to producing cartoons and caricatures, an enjoyable hobby that also won him the odd commission.
In 2015 he decided to get more serious with his art and fell in love with a traditional approach to oil painting when he attended a summer school at a London atelier (now London Fine Art Studios).
Since then, Nick has developed his practice as a figurative artist, continually learning from self study and master classes run by internationally renowned artists. He also enjoys being inspired by the work of friends and connections at several art groups including Odiham where he has been an active member for 5 years.
Nick works mainly in oils and, wherever possible, from life. His aim is not a photographic likeness but to create a believable representation of his subject whether it be a building, head, figure, or collection of inanimate objects.
“The challenge for me is to use paint on a flat surface in a way that creates a convincing representation of a three dimensional thing. That means simplifying what’s in front of me and, weirdly, I find that keeping it simple is often the most difficult thing to achieve. I often fail miserably but try to treat each failed attempt as a lesson for the next time.”
Nick’s work is regularly exhibited locally, has been accepted into several open exhibitions more widely, and he is proud to have his paintings hanging on walls as far away as the USA and Australia.
His submission for the “Portraits for NHS Heroes” project was included in the book by the same name, published at the height of the Covid pandemic and he was the winner of the Kathleen Page Portrait prize in 2024 and again in 2025.
