Salisbury as you will know from previous posts is a favourite city of mine. I am normally drawn to the great medieval buildings such as the Cathedral or the Church of St Thomas a Becket. However on a recent visit I found Fisherton Mill, a local arts centre and a delicious exhibition of Nick Andrews mixed media works – Confluence.

Nick Andrews is a master of en plein air working and has numerous previous exhibitions focussing on outdoor themes such as A Gap in the Market, focussing on the City’s famous Charter Market. His tools are various, and comprise pens, wax pastels, watercolour, ink and stick, oil base pencils watercolour paper. The choices and the scenes reflect the light of southern England. The effect is to illuminate nature as we would like to imagine it.

For Confluence, which was produced in all weathers in 2024 he has celebrated the sources, tributaries and confluences of the five rivers which flow towards and through Salisbury. These are the Avon, Bourne, Ebble, Nadder and Wylye ‘which define and shape the geography of South Wiltshire’, in the words of the artist. Painting and drawing en plein air, he has represented these rivers in all weathers and all seasons with the rivers sometimes in flood and sometimes as dried up bournes in high summer.

Simple strokes of the pens and pastel crayons have produced evocative views, missed by most who travel through Wiltshire on fast roads to the south west or the channel. The views have been sought out by the artist and each work has accompanying script describing his thoughts and sights seen while producing the painting. Seeing these works in the exhibition reminds me that we need to take time out to find these idyllic spots and spend time with nature.

Unfortunately the exhibition is now closed but I will be keeping an eye out for Nick Andrews’s future exhibitions. Fisherton Mill, though, is a place to spend a while if you are in Salisbury. Towards the station there is a range of galleries and studios showcasing local artists together with a café and a shop.

_{Images by permission of the artist, © Nick Andrews.}