Artist Spotlight: Nathan Chenery

Nathan Chenery is an exciting multi-talented artist based in the city of York. The thing that will immediately hook you about Nathan before you even see his work is his affecting enthusiasm and infectious drive to succeed in the ever-competitive art market.

Currently employed by his former university York St John (where he graduated from the Art and Design course in 2005) as Fine Art Technical Demonstrator and, as Arts Advisor of the Revolving Gallery, 26-year-old Nathan is never bored and maintains that the art and creative scene in York is what keeps him motivated. “Art in this city is growing, developing and becoming stronger all the time and Bar Lane Studios is really helping.”

The enterprising artist explains that after graduation he was unsure about how he would move forward but sufficiently fuelled by the intense desire to develop his craft, Nathan found work and began his career as a freelance artist. He comments: “I was a bit numb  after graduation and was very nervous but I tried to do as much stuff as possible – I had some success with some of my work and as a result my confidence kept growing and I was able to move on and develop.”

Nathan enjoyed a variety of rolls within the arts sector before finding his current day-job at the university and maintains that his time at St John‘s has had a positive impact on his life as an artist post-graduation. He comments: “I learned a lot from studying at York St John‘s because I had to actually go out there and do some work experience as an artist – beyond that, as soon as I graduated I managed a gallery in York called Minster Fine Art, so the experience I’ve gained has been a great help to me apart from being self-employed and running my own projects.

“My day-job is also very creative, a lot of the time I am working very closely with students when they are doing a specific project I will be there to help them with that.”

Nathan reflects on the growth of his own business and how it has developed through networking and a building relationships as part of a team. He says: “The Revolving Gallery was formed in 2009 by myself and three other directors – we are an event-based gallery.

“We feature different artists from alternating venues around the city. It’s been great really positive because we were able to receive the Proof Of Concept fund from YSJ which has helped out immensely – we were allowed to hold our very first event here which was a fantastic way to get us started!

“My Mum and Dad actually own their own business, so I have always grown-up around people who are self-employed and just trying to work every hour that God sends in order to make it work. So, I have been lucky because things like tax I have learned from being around my Mum – she’s great at business and my Dad’s good at the practical stuff.”

Nathan comments on his biggest challenge on a daily basis as an artist. “I think that one of the biggest is finding the time to fit it all in around my normal job which I still need to do to get some money in and get by. Of course, it’s also challenging just finding places to show my work – trying to stretch beyond York for exhibitions can be very hard even though I have many connections after five-plus years in the city.”

Despite the struggles that come with being a professional creative nowadays, Nathan asserts that it is important to remain determined and true as an artist in such a competitive environment. He says: “You need to be passionate, but you also need to be honest about what you can do – it’s very easy as an artist to get pulled into working on things that you don’t want to, for example hosting workshops to make money. If that’s what you want to do then great, go for it! But if not, then you aren’t being the artist that you want to be.”

When describing his style and key skills which often crossover, Nathan says: “I draw in a very abstract way using a nib and ink pen and pencil – I paint with oils and then I do some print work usually just drypoint etching and lino are the two that I work with regularly. Those are the main four areas that I focus on.

Developing the conversation further, the eager artist happily discusses his inspirations and how the feelings and emotions that inspire a piece can be different depending on the medium: “For the print work that I do there are two sides – the drawing and then the print side – the painting that I do is quite a different process. I think both forms still have the same feelings and ideas but the print stuff is more structured whereas the painting allows me to be a lot more free.”

Referencing his new home at Bar Lane, Nathan is obviously looking forward to the future and he positively reflects upon how important the place has become to him since he entered. He says: “I can go into the space and get into the creative mind-set,” he says. “When I am at home, I feel relaxed so I have to move everything just to get myself in a working mind-set the two don’t meet, so having that separate space is very useful.

“For everyone else though, Bar Lane will be useful in terms of networks and talking to people. Sharing ideas can be useful for everyone involved.”

Talking of goals, Nathan mentions his hope to spend more time at the studios. “It’s got a really good atmosphere and I have met everyone now,” he explains. “Unfortunately though, because of work I am always down on a Sunday which is a day that not everyone likes – I will get down there more soon!”

While it’s not clear whether Nathan will be able to regularly balance his massive workload over the course of the coming months enough to make it into the building on a more regular basis, it’s obvious that his versatile nature has taken him far within the ever-expanding York scene, and with the support of Bar Lane he will continue to thrive at a national level as a result of his honest and heartfelt approach. “I collect art, sell it, make it and to an extent I teach it at the university, so I am quite happy doing all of those pastimes,” he adds. “I can quite happily work on the Revolving Gallery, have my current job and be an artist – in an ideal world having the main job as an artist would be what I would pick but in this day and age it’s not the most sustainable of careers so I’d like to do an MA and go into lecturing at some point.”

Good luck!

For more information visit Nathan‘s official website here.

A Little Bit More About Bar Lane Studios

Bar Lane Studios is a brand new instantly accessible and exciting space for artists and creatives in the city of York. Currently, Bar Lane is housing a unique Salvador Dali exhibition in its gallery which features original signed prints by the world-renowned creative force, before the whole building opens next week to take in a number of local artists (including Nathan Chenery of the York-based art promoters Revolving Gallery and John Squire of iconic band The Stone Roses) along with selected interns from York St John’s University.

The project is the first of its kind in the UK as a not-for-profit social enterprise housed in a 7,000 sq ft space. The idea has been developed by York-based illustrator Ben Clowes who is a former Fine Art teacher at York College and Northumbria University with an aim to support the region’s creative talent. “Our mission is to get everyone together as one big community to support the arts.

“We’ve got a lot of people involved and investors from Aviva and the NHS – the biggest challenge when we got started was finding people to help fund the project and then getting them to work together, but because we had done our research and knew that  there was a desire for this kind of space in York, everybody agreed that it was a solid idea and so, we did well when we had to pitch it to people.”

Bar Lane has been met with positive support locally with funding coming from the aforementioned York St John University, Science City York and the York Council. YSJ will also be sponsoring five of its graduates in July and providing them with free space at the studio along with a year’s bursary to support the artists’ growth and business development.

Ben says that it is imperative that creative industries are nurtured at a local and regional level: “The UK has the highest percentage of people working in the creative industries in the whole of Europe and there’s no reason why York shouldn’t be a centre for creativity in England.”

As an artist who moved from York down south (to study at Cambridge School of Illustration and Design) before returning home to teach, Ben acknowledges that there is a pre-conception within local graduates that one has to move to a city like London or Manchester to get jobs in creative industries. He continues: “People don’t have to leave York to find jobs and we are now trying to fill that gap in opportunities within the region.

“There are some great people that we’ll have in once we get started who are trying to help us support graduates including Blink Media – they will be helping graduates we take in to nurture their skills in multimedia and the arts.”

As project leader Ben explains that while there were some stressful points leading up to the gallery’s opening, his passion and the level of support he has recieved from the local community has kept him inspired throughout the process. “It’s not been easy to set-up, because it’s all well and good having creativity but you need to have business experience as well.” He adds: “The creative people of York are so dedicated to the arts and that’s inspiring.”

Continuing the positive discussion, Ben reflects on the future and how he’d like Bar Lane Studios to develop. He says: “I want to create something that will help local people in the creative sector get noticed whatever their chosen profession – in the future we will be expanding into other forms of media depending on what’s required s0, if anyone’s got any ideas on how we can move forward, get in touch.”

The space is one of the largest arts-orientated ones in Yorkshire with 22 studios for artists, a print worksop, an Apple Mac suite, the gallery (to showcase work by both local and national artists) and a cafe too! There will also be various courses, workshops, networking events and seminars which will be open to the community – Pulse York have already signed on to teach both beginner and advanced workshops (with a special digital youth class on Saturday mornings for 13 to 17-year-olds) in using Mac software for photo-editing and drawing.

Other artistic support will be offered in the form of workshops and courses in screen printing, relief printing and etching – there will also be an afternoon print workshop in July held by local artist Piers Browne. The print room will be open to monthly and annual subscriptions for artists wishing to take advantage of the facilities.

Courses and workshops from life drawing, painting for beginners (and an advanced painting course to be held by one of the country’s up-and-coming painters Nathan Walsh), to photography and jewellery design will be held throughout the year with costs ranging from £7.50 to £11 per session.

Each space is available for hire on a monthly basis (the idea is that artists can come and use the facilities for the period and then stay on if they like). There are five individual studios ranging from 100 sq ft to 215 sq ft available, alongside 10 partitioned “hot space” studios. Ben comments: “The way it will work is that an artist can pay £10 to store their work in our gallery for one month and then, if they sell it, they can pay another £10 admin fee – the emphasis is on supporting local artists to get their work exposed to a wide audience.

For the artists in residence, Bar Lane will act as a “home away from home” and they will have access to washroom and kitchen facilities. Ben emphasises how important it is for everyone to get the most out of the space: “The people that come into the studios can start off in one of the smaller ‘hot spaces’ and then there’s room for them to progress into one of the individual ones as they develop,” he says. “We want people to feel comfortable here so that they can thrive in a professional environment.”

For more information you can now find Bar Lane Studios on Twitter and Facebook.

See you on the 25th when the gallery will be showcasing original Matisse lithographs from 1954! We will also be launching the arts cafe and opening up the studio space to introduce our new residents. It’s going to be fantastic! Following that there’s going to be a summer open exhibition (see the poster above and a full resolution version click here), that will focus exclusively on local artists.

Kind regards and keep in touch.