Fiddle Icons Confidential - The Making of A Portrait

This year the conference notes from the North Atlantic Fiddle Convention 2012 will be published. The paper I gave at NAFCo 2012 explored the evolution of the Fiddle Icons project and the production methods I used. I'm very excited that it will be published. Watch this space for the link when it's available!

Fiddle Icons on show in Townsville.

Nicole Murray is holding her first solo exhibition in her home town, Townsville, North Queensland.

"I have been painting portraits of musicians for over a decade, and this latest series is specifically about fiddle players. I have interviewed the players on video, and used stills from the video as references to make paintings which use symbolism and the visual language of traditional icon painting. The works are in oils and 23K gold leaf on board.

I showed these works in June at the North Atlantic Fiddle Convention in Derry, Northern Ireland, and they have just arrived back in the country! I am continuing to expand the collection and plan to show it at a major Brisbane venue next year. Because of this, the originals are not for sale. I have had the most beautiful archival quality prints on paper created from them, which will be available to buy at the show, and some gorgeous postcard sets as well."

FIDDLE ICONS at Sweatshop Gallery opens at 4pm on Saturday 1 September. Please come along! The show runs until September 30.

To celebrate the show, Cloudstreet is doing a special house concert performance from 2pm on Sunday 2 September, with a special guest, the subject of one of the paintings, the award-winning Scottish-style fiddle player, Emma Nixon. To book, please call Sophie on 0421 763 396.

Portraits of Amazing Fiddle Players at NAFCo 2012

Australian artist Nicole Murray has created portraits of iconic international fiddle players especially for the 2012 North Atlantic Fiddle Convention in Derry. 

Murray is showing seven major works in oils and gold leaf, symbolic yet realistic portraits of well-known players, five of whom are performing at NAFCo. 

The portraits above are, clockwise from top left: Emma Nixon (Australia), Nancy Kerr triptych (England), Natalie Haas (USA), Ado Barker (Australia), Dougie Maclean (Scotland), Martin Hayes (Ireland, USA) and Alasdair Fraser (Scotland, USA).

Along with the oils, she has also created watercolour portraits of six more fiddlers, using video interviews to produce artworks that combine line drawing, watercolour and photography.

The works will be on show in the Millennium Forum, Derry, and the artist will be available to discuss the work.

Show Details.

Fiddle Icons: portraits of international fiddle players by Australian Nicole Murray.
Exhibition of paintings and prints at the North Atlantic Fiddle Convention, 27 June - 1 July 2012, at the Millennium Forum, 3 Newmarket Street Londonderry BT48 6EB.
Fiddle Icons Confidential: The Making of a Portrait. Presentation by the artist at the North Atlantic Fiddle Convention, Sunday 1 July,  AT THE NEW TIME OF 11.00am - 11.20am, with film and illustrations of the process of interviewing subjects and creating the works.

Media Coverage.

Please contact Nicole on nicole[at]cloudstreet.org or +44 7446 691874 if you would like more information about the show or higher resolution images to publish.


For the full NAFCo programme, go to www.nafco2012.com


Journal of Music has published an article about the show at 
http://journalofmusic.com/radar/iconic-fiddlers