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nigel kent

The materials that I use are of paramount importance to me. The structured aquarelle paper, preferably of rough and heavy grain, is a surface that supports and conveys the message to the viewer -- the message itself usually being of a rough and heavy nature.

The medium is ink, and is practically always applied by Rapidograph pens. I use the pen like a painter might use a brush, the pen rapidly stroking the surface of the paper, building a matted, somewhat soft texture of minute curls, lines and points.

The original source of this matted surface structure was, rather strangely, originally revealed to me in a large work that I was doing of a full-frontal, well-hung, naked torso. After having completed the pubic hair area, I returned to the same drawing the following day -- and that particular area jumped out at me. I decided to experiment, and produced a small drawing of an erect dick using only a mass of tiny curls of ink. The conclusion proved very satisfactory.

I had found an original technique.

For want of a better name for my process, "curled" would have to suffice. I did work in dots at one time, but I found that another gay artist, Rex, was doing the same. So I switched -- first to tiny dashes. Then I discovered the whirls!

At all times the composition is arrived at directly onto the final surface. Therefore, there are never any preliminary sketches.

Titles are also important. They allow me to introduce an element of humour which I regard as an essential part of consensual behaviour and comraderie, and it gives the work a sort of long time in art.

A great body of my works are dick and balls concentrated. That stems from my street-wise crotch-watching. Also many of the action torsos are headless, which is very important to me, as my intention is that the viewer can choose to place himself, or a friend, within the circumstances of the fantasy that he is viewing. I hope that it opens the range of my work to a much wider audience. As it were, "Something for everyone".

Much, if not all, of my chosen subject matter is drawn from personal experiences. It can almost be regarded as auto-biographical, as it draws from my sexual experiences of some 30 years. Many of the figures represented are actual guys (real people): one-night-stands and friends. Elsewise, the guys are purely symbolical and have been drawn from my lusty past -- together with the free range of my lofty imagination.