Artist Statement – Nigel Proud I was born in Barnsley in 1962 and am based in the South Pennines. I paint animals and people in pastels, pastel pencil and charcoal on a sanded paper.My aim is for a portrait to look realistic, yet still have that painterly feel to it. I want people to feel the passion in the painting, creating a narrative about all their happy memories, capturing the unique individual characteristics of the subject. My process starts when I build layers up initially with a dark hard pastel, putting details in with soft pastels, pastel pencils and charcoal pencils on a sanded paper. Aerial perspective has a big part to play when creating depth in a pet portrait – concentrating on the nose, then the eyes and putting less details working back to the ears. I want 2D art to appear to be 3D. I use a butterfly effect flitting from one place to another, which allows me to concentrate for short periods, comparing and contrasting different tones, returning to an area can highlight changes that may need to be made. I greatly admire the work of the NHS in these exceptional times and have produced seven portraits for the`Portraits for NHS Heroes initiative’. Some of these can be seen in the ‘Members Own Lockdown Challenge’ page. My artwork can also be viewed on Facebook:www.facebook.com/NigelsPastelPortraits and Instagram:www.instagram.com/nigels_portraits