A Long Conversation with Colour
My first creative memories go back to when I must have been around four years old. I was at my Nana’s house in Dunedin and someone (probably her) had given me a colouring book and some crayons. My first ‘drawing’ was to the outline of a parrot. What I distinctly remember was my delighted shock at the brilliant crimson and vivid blue that came out when I used these new materials (crayons).
Over the years, I have played with many mediums. Being a teenager in the ‘60s and ‘70s as the cultural waves of hippiedom and rock ‘n’ roll rolled into New Zealand meant lots of experimentation with clothes, colour (tie-dye!) and style. We all wore thrift shop clothing and occasionally would save up for a really groovy piece of clothing from somewhere like Tigermoth or Browns Mill.
I moved to Europe in the mid-’70s. Among other things, I discovered my interest in graphics and, following on from that, screen printing.
I had two great friends who did all the weekly posters for two of the big music/theatre venues in Amsterdam and I became fascinated with screen printing and eventually learned how to apply it to fabric in the early ‘80s in Sydney.
Cities often have a golden period in our minds and in the ‘80s and early ‘90s Sydney was that place for me. I turned my first screen printed designs on cotton into shirts and got a stall at Paddington markets, which was a home base for many creatives in that time.
Over those first few years I produced several individual fabric prints which helped extend my clothing range. In 1985, I went to Seattle for the first time and came across someone with lots of literature about watercolour marbling. I bought some of this information, having fallen in love with marbled papers in Florence some 10 years before. I had one of those intuitive flashes that I should be able to make marbling work on fabrics.
In fact, it took nearly 18 months of experimenting to finally produce the first pieces of marbled fabric but I love making them to this day. Every single piece is a one-off so the variety is infinite. The process is very unusual as water based pigments are suspended on a tank of seaweed-based gel, roughly the consistency of cream.
The flow of the pigments changes as the marbling progresses so a range of techniques are used (combing, raking, spattering) to manipulate the pigments into their final shape on the surface. A piece of fabric with an alum solution added to it then picks up the pigments, which immediately sets the pigment pattern into the fibres of the fabric in a process called ‘lakes of colour’.
Marbled fabrics are quite colour fast and resist UV fading. In all the years I’ve been making fabrics (my tank is now 3 metres long x 1.5 metres wide), I have rarely found anyone who works on that scale.
As a result, I necessarily make a simple clothing line to offer a way of having your own piece of marbling.
These are always available in The Source, the artist’s collective in the centre of Coromandel town.
I have another practice, often done in front of the fire in winter, of creating unique digital prints based on my own photographs. The original shots can be taken anytime and anywhere (just like any photo), but the re-working usually takes a bit longer than the original shot and needs some quiet time just looking at things.
I currently produce a small range of things based on these images – some images on T-shirts, some images are digitally printed with archival inks on archival paper (and largely framed as prints) and I have a great selection of handmade cards available in The Source.
As an artist, it’s good to have some new projects to stir the imagination and stimulate the flow of ideas. Last year in winter it was a combination of this digital printing and also marbling on 3D surfaces, creating some unique lights/lamps and other 3D objects.
I also continue with my exploration of sand carving rock, including our own pounamu, with the use of an industrial sand-blasting setup I have at my workshop. Although this is not a large part of my output these days, I still enjoy the design process and the permanence of a permanently carved memento.
I occasionally make a unique memorial for a friend or the family/whānau of someone who has died, knowing they will be able to put it into a special memory place and/or take it to a new location if it’s time to move.
I love living here in Coromandel town and continually find inspiration in our environment – the shapes and colours of our hills and waterways along with the constantly changing light.
I also love the ongoing success of our collective, The Source. We celebrated our 22nd birthday in December 2025.
I have often worked with collective projects of different types and find great value in collaborating with a range of people to bring our strengths together into whatever the project is.
My work is available at The Source (31 Kapanga Road, Coromandel) seven days a week.
Instagram: @nigel.sparrow1
Contact: 027 224 5990
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