We are delighted to showcase Nicola Bird’s collection of landscapes in her first solo exhibition with the gallery. Nicola’s work moves towards abstraction rather than a direct representation of a particular place. It is inspired by an experience of landscape, and a love of the Lake District, of long walks alone, the play of light and the rich, changing colour palette as the seasons turn. Working mainly in oil on board, her softly blended skies and rich and varied mix of colours and texture tie together to create works that truly capture the ever-changing and hypnotising magic of landscape.
Nicola’s work is inspired by her favourite landscapes. The images are her response to the experience of these places and emerge from an intuitive process of ‘call and response’ between visual memory and the play of materials and media. “I continually explore the mark making possibilities of different tools and combinations of media in painting. This opens up fresh direction and an element of chance, of serendipity.”
“The plan is simply to start, with no preconceived idea other than to find a horizon that draws me in”
Nicola prefers not to work from direct observation, except in sketches, finding more creative freedom back in her studio. “The plan is simply to start, with no preconceived idea other than to find a horizon that draws me in. Often I discover why some element of a painting works only when I recognise it in later in the landscape. When out walking I am thinking about painting, but when I start to paint I leave analysis aside, working in a rapid, instinctive and expressive way. If some intriguing sense of space is recognised within these first fresh marks I pause, then proceed in a more considered way. Usually I have to put the work aside so I can judge with a fresh eye on return. If there is no alchemy, no poetry I work over it, returning to a gestural, less controlled way of working, accepting loss in order to move on, allowing the media, the uncontrived movement of paint to lead the way forward. Sometimes I get lost along the way, but eventually I arrive somewhere new, a landscape in which I hope the viewer will want to dwell for a while.”
Nicola’s exhibition runs until April 30th in our Blencathra gallery.
