From an article by Ashley Franklin, Derbyshire Life.
Night Theme, Derby Cathedral shows the building as if a beacon, while his various impressionistic depictions of the market place show the Guildhall to be positively iconic. Winter Afternoon from Darley Park has archival resonance as it captures a moment in time: the Westfield site beginning to impose itself on the city skyline; and while a painting like Evening Skyline and Into Derbyshire could be anywhere, it’s still pleasing to know that it’s our city, especially as Nick has invested this twilight scene with a dramatic Turneresque flourish of big skies and bold colour brushstrokes.



Matt Edwards, Collections Access Assistant at Derby Museum & Art Gallery who has closely followed Nick’s career since his Derby City Open success and helped inspire Nick by showing him works from the Goodey Collection, notably Ernest Townsend’s Derby Fish Market by Night, 1922 and W. E. Mosley’s Friar Gate, 1924, direct influences on the aforementioned Night Theme, Derby and Early Morning, Friargate respectively. Both the Townsend and Mosley will be displayed at the Museum to coincide with the Tregoning Gallery exhibition.
‘Nick’s Derby paintings are beautifully emotive and capture quiet, atmospheric moments in the city’, declares Matt. Matt dearly hopes Derby Museum will acquire some of Nick’s paintings – ‘they will certainly have historical appeal for future generations’, believes Matt. Nick reveals that Nottingham City Museum recently bought one of his pictures. ‘They’ve hung it next to a Lowry’, he coos. ‘If Derby Museum put one of my pictures next to a Townsend, I’d feel so proud’.