About the artist - Nick Bowering

The inspiration for my work stems from two childhood memories which remain inextricably linked in my mind. First was my father arriving home one evening carrying a battered leather suitcase filled to the brim with toys; model planes, tanks, trucks and a train set.

Secondly, family evenings spent viewing photographic slides projected on to the living room wall. Images of exotic travel to far-flung places, namely my birthplace of Perth, Australia, where my parents emigrated to by ship as part of the £10 assisted passage during the 1960’s.

After returning to London, a love of model-making was instilled by my Grandfather, an engineer who worked on Routemaster buses. He taught me how to make toys from scrap wood and metal, as was common for the post-war generation with the mind-set of “make-do-and-mend”.

These memories, along with the recollection of how my father, like other men of his generation, was fastidious in keeping nails, screws and other precious workshop ephemera in old tobacco tins for order and safe-keeping, has enabled me to develop a range of artworks celebrating these themes. My assemblages combine handmade cast pewter models with painted enamel and found objects.

I obtained a BA Hons at Camberwell School of Art, have exhibited widely and my work is displayed in collections including the Science Museum, BP Oil and Cunard.