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This year someone reached out to me to share a random act of kindness they received from Nigel Purchase, in their sharing my heart was moved, it made me think of the powerful impact of random acts of kindness.   Rachel writes 'I just wanted to say that when I was a little girl I went to the same church as Nigel.  He did an art workshop where we all painted a scene and I remember being so impressed when he painted horses in a field with just a few brush strokes.  I was very shy but asked him if...

All the blog posts here have been about the legacy of Nigel's art.  I'd like to now share how the family art story continues and honours the personal artistic journey Nigel took.  As a young man, in the late 1950s, Nigel experienced challenges with his mental health and was very fortunate to be cared for by a forward thinking practitioner of the time: Dr Vawdrey.  Dr Vawdrey used art as a therapeutic treatment in his work; in time Nigel was able to regain a sense of wellbeing through the medium of art under the care of this incredible doctor.  Nigel then...

Nigel Purchase, local Chichester artist (1940-2011), became renowned for his ‘Chichester Street Scenes’ in which he painted, in minute detail, the people and streets of Chichester.   This is a story about a less well known, but fascinating painting ‘Chichester Festival Theatre Summer 1989’ and Nigel’s surprising personal association with the theatre much earlier in his career all of which would lead him, if he were alive today, to celebrate its 60th Anniversary with a raised glass! In 1988 the Theatre looked different in so far as it was a solitary theatre but was on the brink of an exciting addition:...

There is a long tradition in which artists include their self portrait within their paintings. Some artists used intriguing tricks to hide themselves, for example, Jan van Eyck, in his painting 'The Arnolfini Portrait' (1434) of a wedding couple, hides his self portrait in the reflection of a mirror above the couple.  Henri de Toulouse-Lautec, painted himself in the background of the nightclub scene of 'At The Moulin Rouge' (1892-95).  These are just a couple of examples from the tradition which stretches across centuries. West Street.                         North Street...

Past and present... looking at East Street Chichester this week, I wondered what had changed in the last 43 years since Nigel painted his first Chichester street scene. Just looking at the first two shops either side of East Street: Superdrug still in business, only a slight 'face lift' to their shop front typography, amazing...probably one of the few shops in this part of East Street that is still trading 43 years later! On the opposite side of the street a very different story, the Clintons we see now was once the traditional 'Acres the Bakers' where I seem to...