Being a painter is all I ever wanted to do. I was constantly drawing as a kid. I remember I would go watch movies like Aladdin or the Lion King and immediately come home and start drawing the characters. I collected books with pictures of tigers and would draw them constantly.
1. Tell us about your background and journey.
Ever since I was a kid, all I wanted to be was a painter. I remember in school I wrote down that I wanted to become a painter, move to France and wear a beret. I spent a great deal of my childhood making art, from realistic drawings to comics to cartoon characters. Once I got to high school, I found other interests and took a step back from art.I decided not to go to art school and took a different path entirely. When I turned 25, I knew something was missing in my life. I quit my job, started waiting tables at a restaurant and was determined to become a full time artist. Eventually I moved to New York, gained recognition on social media, and now I am lucky to be selling my artwork all over the world.
2. What inspired you to become a painter?
Being a painter is all I ever wanted to do. I was constantly drawing as a kid. I remember I would go watch movies like Aladdin or the Lion King and immediately come home and start drawing the characters. I collected books with pictures of tigers and would draw them constantly.
I won an award in kindergarten for drawing a Lion and that’s when I knew I had some sort of talent. From then on I would spend hours drawing and creating. I had magazines of wildlife artists and hoped to one day be an artist and create big dramatic paintings of lions and tigers.
3. What fascinates you about wildlife?
I think I find something beautiful and freeing about the primal nature of animals. There is a peace and simplicity to their lives. So for me, it is somewhat of an escape.
4. Which mediums do you usually work with and why?
I use acrylic on canvas. My mother is also a painter and used acrylics. I am self taught and did not go to art school, so my method is quite different than many acrylic painters.
5. What attributes should a painter have?
A painter needs to have patience and determination. Being an artist takes countless hours working in your studio, so you have to have a great deal of determination and self-motivation. It also can take a while to get recognition as an artist, so patience and resilience is very important. I always say make sure you really love what you are doing if you want to make it as an artist.
6. Which painter do you admire the most and what is your favorite artwork by that painter?
I would say I admire Picasso as an artist the most because he was able to transform his art over time, developing several different styles and mediums. My favorite artwork of his is the painting “Guernica”.
7. What would you advise to upcoming painters?
My biggest advice to upcoming painters is share your art AND YOURSELF. I sell to collectors all over the world and a great deal of that is from social media. Put your artwork out there and also share who you are as an artist. Collectors want to see you and know your story.
8. Which is your favorite book and why?
I was never much of a reader, I always liked picture books instead. While painting, I’ll often listen to books on tape and really enjoy The Giver. I like the imagery the book creates and it was one of the rare times I could say the book was better than the movie.
(b.1988 / Canada) Internationally known artist, Nick Sider, is a self-taught acrylic painter, based out of New York City. Since the age of 5, Sider knew he wanted to be a painter. He grew up with a love and passion for art, but decided to pursue other interests after leaving high school.
At the age of 25, Sider decided to quit his job, teach himself to paint, and begin to pursue his childhood dream of becoming an artist. In 2014 he relocated to New York City and had his first NYC solo show in 2016. Thanks to several viral videos on social media, Nick Sider has gained international recognition for his hyperrealistic paintings and been fortunate to sell his artwork to collectors worldwide.
While experimenting with a multitude of subject matter, Sider has always maintained a hyperrealistic style, attempting to create paintings that extend beyond what a photograph could ever capture, ."my favorite moment while painting is when a subject on my canvas begins to come alive." His main goal for his paintings is to use detail and color to create the illusion of life spawning from the canvas. More recently, Nick Sider has been working on a series of large-scale lion and tiger paintings as an ode to his childhood and his obsession with drawing big cats.
Interviewed By - Serene Ingle
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