Monday, February 16, 2009

Artworks This Week - Maryland Public Television



In 2006 I was spotlighted twice on Maryland Public Television's Artworks This Week, hosted by public television celeb Rhea Feikin. The second time they brought a film crew to my studio, and that feature has been re-aired often. I just saw it for the first time while editing it for Youtube - I hate watching myself on these things! Each time this segment has been broadcast, I hear from people in the DC/Maryland area, and after it was aired again the other night, I received an email from a world-famous musician who has been a major influence on my creative life. More on that soon! Thank you to MPT, Rhea Feikin, and producer Katrina Threat for your interest and support!

25 comments:

Janet Belich said...

Super cool, Nick . But too short. Makes me want to sign up for another workshop. "Bad Boy of Water Color " ? ...sigh.
How's the box project coming ? Hope I didn't back you into a corner with this . (pun intended ! ) But I appreciate your willingness. Thank you.

RH Carpenter said...

Fantastique!!!

Deb Townsend said...

Nice spot, Nick. :)

Billie Crain said...

you love being the bad boy and you know it, Nick.;) you and i have the same opinion on abstracts. i need a tiny element of the 'real' to give me a clue, if you know what i mean. btw, you look cute on video. what's the problem?

wayne said...

Nick!! Not only are you a brilliant aquamedia artist (we all knew that!!) but you're also 'a natural' in front of the video camera!! Love those big sheets of paper and the wet-in-wet work -- that's exactly one of the key things i also love about 'flow watermedia'. In a concise video you do so extremely well here in communicating your approach and in pointing out key interactive features of watermedia that complement a free-form intuitive approach to painting. I like how you draw the clear connection between *improvisation* in music with *interaction/improvisation* in art. Nick, an outstanding video clip!!! An inspiration! Sincere congrats,
best wishes,
wayne

Anonymous said...

wow. i could watch a whole hour if it ran that long. well done. thanks nick - it was worth the wait.

chris!

William K. Moore said...

Unreal Nicholas.. but it's real! I saw it.. A wonderful bit (not long enough) or peek into the artist's methodology. Really exciting to see an action painter dancing with the wash - a definite co-op relationship: push-pull, hide/seek, aggress/submit, agony/ecstasy - the list continues... Bad boy?? or not bad enough? -- I can't wait to see the watercolor world's "bad boy" become its baddest boy - er man.. You got the goods, you bring da goods - and the goods is good -

Niclas Jönsson said...

It´s always good when the "bad boys"(or girls) comes along and break every possible rule there is, cause we LOVE it!!
Especially in the art world.

perugina said...

A wonderful snippet showing just a little of Nicholas Simmons – ”The bad boy of watercolour” inner workings.
Water is the vehicle - I love that you have the ability and delight in making those ’split second decisions’ not easy and you make it look effortless!!! – I remember all to well trying a pour for the first time, as is shown here and in your wonderful DVD – and how ‘freaked out’ I was!
Thanks for allowing us all to come along for the ride NNG - in sharing your journey.
Congratulations and my most sincere best wishes always.
PG
PS...Yes..to 'the dream garage' containing the XK in Cherry!:)
Beep...beep!

Nick said...

Janet - got a boxing match going on as I write this. It's a challenge!

Rhonda - all words look better ending in ique don't they? Need to remember that for titles. :)

Deb - thanks for dropping by, I'll be over shortly

Billie - the first time I saw that was on a French website where I was referred to "l'enfant terrible de l'aquarelle" and I've tried not to disappoint ever since. Hate seeing myself on video!

Wayne - well thanks, but nothing unusual there, really. That was probably shot before we became friends, and I was likely thinking to myself "damn, what would Wayne Roberts do in this situation???" I should have tossed the brush and picked up a guitar!

Chris - thank god it's not an hour long!!!!!!!

Bill - as you know, I'm on the verge of sounding off in a way that will simultaneously endear me to many of us, and make me an absolute pariah among the rest. Someone has to do it, but let's see how much longer I can bite the tongue. (ouch!)

Niclas - thought you were out of action there for awhile, good to have you back in the barracks

PG - actually "cherry" meaning concours condition. My dream XK-120 is in ivory, with red leather. Saw one once that you now couldn't touch for much less than $Mil, and I'd probably leave my wife for that thing! lol (and then pick her up around the corner :) ) Thanks as always for the kinds words, I'll be over to see what's new.

perugina said...

oH!...but of course...the red is somewhere in there yes?
I have a bomb here for chips if you're interested! Ya'll have to git your hands dirty tho'! :)

Anonymous said...

Great clip, Nick. I love that we're going to get the Bad Boy up here in Vancouver BC next year. I'll embed the clip on the website I'm building.

Illegitimi non carborundum.

Jamie

David Lobenberg said...

Hey, right on watercolor bro!

Anita said...

Thanks to Billie Crain for posting this link - what a treat! Would like to have a try at this sometime.

Nick said...

PG - my greasemonkey days are long over with, even though I love doing that stuff...too dangerous for the hands.

Jamie - a pleasure to have you aboard, and I can't wait to meet you - Vancouver, Kalispell, wherever, whenever. Not letting them get me down, sooner or later the old guard cronies will be in the rearview mirror, lots of them there already....partly thanks to people like you and Z. Tovarish!

Dave - good to have you back, there's a beer in the fridge!

Anita - nice to meet you. Not sure what you're referring to, but step right up! I'll check out your blog, thanks for stopping by.

Anonymous said...

Hello Nick

Your demo is very interesting. I love.
I have register it

Thank you

@+

Pierre alias masmoulin

Nick said...

Pierre - bonjour, thanks for stopping by. You can't pack much of a demo into a few minutes - the real demo can be found on the DVD here:
http://www.ccpvideos.com/page/CCP/PROD/NS1d

David Burge said...

I hope there's a FEW beers in the fridge actually!

As Wayne said, you're an inspiration!

Always a pleasure to see you in action.

Congratulations Nick!

Yo BAD dude!

Nick said...

Dake - I'm pretty sick this weekend, will catch up with soon and the latest post from Alice. Thanks for the looking in amigo.

Mary Sonya conti said...

Can't wait for the workshop closer to home in 2010. Wonder where you will be by then with your constant movement and COLOR (and only hope that am not too far behind to keep up with you)

Annaquarel.les said...

I'm really impressed Nick! I loved watching you in action painting that big sheet of paper. You must use huge tubes for such a painting. I also think that watercolour is different from other media for its elusive nature and this is the reason why I love it. You can control it to some extent. The rest is serendipity.

Nick said...

Mary - I think I've been relying too much on color, so am thinking about toning it down...hope that won't disappoint!

Anna - I think I was using fluid acrylic there, in the bottles...love those! And if you squeeze out too much, you can put it back in - try doing that with a tube of watercolor! ciao :)

Mary Sonya conti said...

Nick, you tone it down? This gotta definitely see. Quite sure the positive and negative of black and white would be manipulated expertly by your hand. please, it's just simply Sonya.

Nick said...

Hi Sonya, it's a tough thing to do when you've been using lots of color, but feel the need to exercise some restraint. Then again....could just be a passing phase, one of those that doesn't take hold. Thanks for the interest, looking forward to seeing your work!

RH Carpenter said...

When I'm feeling a big down or uninspired, I come back and watch this again, Nick. Thanks so much for sharing your talent with us here in the blogosphere!