Nikki lives in the harbour town of Ilfracombe in North Devon. A keen runner before the birth of her son, now 6 months old, she can now be regularly seen walking the hills of Ilfracombe with young Federico on her front. Nikki combines her love of walking along her surrounding enriching coastline with her passion for painting.
Immersing herself in the sights, scents and sounds of her environment, the steep hills around the town, harbour and more remote coastal paths provide endless inspiration for Nikki’s work. Through her controlled use of vibrant colouring and abstraction, paintings are created through an intuitive approach. The techniques that Nikki uses are diverse, but there are two recurrent themes in all of her work – dynamic use of colour and coastal subject matter. Detailed watercolours, illustrative acrylics and abstract oils, Nikki’s ability to respond to mood, feeling, memory and imagination is captured through engaging and vibrant creations.
Nikki continually strives to create a sense of place which every viewer can relate to in a personal way through their own experiences. She doesn’t attempt to produce a reproduction of a scene, but having a relationship with the places that she paints, Nikki’s work goes beyond the everyday familiar vision of things. Her palette is heavily influenced by the imposing sea with its high horizon and blue/green tones. Familiar places, in particular St. Nicholas’ Chapel and the coastguard houses appear in Nikki’s work time and time again, and she never tires of how these two significant buildings seem to alter and change in relation to their surroundings.
Nikki works in her studio at home, using her own photos and sketches, but more importantly imagination and experience to determine her work. She rarely plans the composition of her paintings, enjoying the freedom of exploring ideas as they intuitively appear.
Growing up on the Mendip Hills in Somerset, Nikki graduated with a degree in Illustration before embarking on a teaching career. She moved to Ilfracombe in 2004 in order to satisfy her desire to paint and live around this inspiring coastline.
