Govinder Nazran’s artistic training began at Bradford Art College, where he studied Graphic Design from 1980-1983. He then went on to study at Lincoln Art College, completing a Higher Diploma in Graphic Design, specialising in Illustration, in 1985.

Having completed his formal training, Govinder decided to move to London, approaching all of the major city publishers with his design portfolio. He soon found himself an agent and started work on children’s book illustrations, with a focus on Indian books. After six months in London, he moved to Cambridge and continued to work freelance in illustration.

In 1987, Govinder moved back to Bradford, taking up the position as designer for a greetings card company with responsibility for product design as well as development. He left in 1990 to join an artists’ agency, working on licensing and product development, and later directing photographic shoots. This eventually led to him gaining a prestigious position as photographic art director with a mail order catalogue company, spending the next year travelling around the world on fashion shoots.

However, by 1993, Govinder decided to return to the quiet life in Saltaire, spending the next five years working freelance on card designs with major publishers. Having built up an enviable reputation through his designs, he decided the time was right to approach the fine art market with a view to having his designs published.

Govinder says “I am naturally a shy person and find it difficult to articulate my thoughts verbally. When I’m put on the spot and asked to explain my work, I usually end up a gibbering wreck, cursing myself later for my lack of verbal dexterity. My true personality reveals itself through my paintings.

Many of my paintings are about good and evil – innocence and malevolence. When I was a child I remember believing what a wonderful and happy place the world was. I loved to learn about other people in other countries and wanted to visit them all. Of course, I now realise things aren’t quite as I once imagined, and the once distant places where I so wanted to be are not so far away; they are actually on my doorstep. The people I wanted to meet are locked in a bitter hatred of each other, divided by race or religion. The world is a place where the innocent pay the heaviest price. It affects me deeply. It’s like living in the garden of Good and Evil. I can’t ignore it, so I depict it in the form of these innocent pictures. I leave it to the individual to look at my paintings and choose what they would like to see, innocence or malevolence – the ‘good’ or the ‘evil’!

Above all else I am, and always will be, an eternal optimist. Optimism is one of the greatest gifts we possess. When I think about it, I think of the song ‘Fields of Gold’ by Sting – the lyrics sum it up!

These two opposing juxtapositions ultimately explain many of my paintings. Look at the ones which have malevolent titles – mainly the evil cats. To me they are representations of evil. However, at first glance, the impression they exude is optimism. The wide-eyed cats and dogs always look petrified and are representations of the innocent. You can choose to see these paintings any way you like. See love and happiness or death and the Devil, it doesn’t matter so long as you see something and connect with it.

This is where I draw a connection between these paintings and my abstract paintings. I would like you to see whatever you see! You get the most from a painting if it connects with you. When you look at an abstract painting, you can see nothing, or you can see it all – it’s either for you, or it isn’t! For me, this simple philosophy sums up what is art and what is not – you either like it or you don’t! My paintings are from my soul and I hope, honest!

Before I begin a painting, I start with a very rough preliminary colour sketch, which I may have done weeks or months ago. I keep my sketches along with notes and ideas in dozens of sketchbooks. The books are overstuffed with ragged bits of paper containing ‘those thoughts’ that just pop into your head un-announced at the strangest times.

With the aid of my sketches, I know exactly what I’m going to paint when I’ve pinned up my canvas. It is very spontaneous. I have all my colours pre-determined. I use solid oil bars directly onto canvas, manipulating the paint with my fingers, using no brushes. The paint reacts with the heat from my fingers and the more you work it, the more fluid it becomes. It’s a wonderful and unusual medium to work with.

Composition usually begins life as pure abstract shapes. Flow of line and form, as well as negative shapes, are important here. I also look for connections between shapes and link them with connecting lines. The balance and harmony of colour pull the whole composition together. The end result is part defined and part abstract.

In my ‘pure’ abstracts I look to nature and emotion, and build on that. From life seen through the window of a speeding car, or the blurred reflection of a city seen through bleary eyes, to the depiction of a single moment of intense emotion expressed through layers of paint. It’s a very pure art form.