currently showing at Sloan Square

Nicky’s paintings, with their intensely personal use of colour, reference both her academic background (she is a graduate in Textile Design) and her abiding interest in the emotional content of colour itself.  The pictures are often presented as a juxtaposition of decorative planes: their impact accentuated by a deliberate yet imaginative colouristic distortion.  In this respect the pictorial treatment recalls the fauvists of the early 20th century as well as lending a characteristic visual dynamism to her work.  This technical accomplishment, allows the paintings themselves, to express an exuberance that can at times appear at odds with the atmosphere of solitude that often emanates from these unpeopled scenes. Reminiscent of the work of metaphysical artists such as Giorgio De Chirico, this feeling of quiet emptiness, dignified as opposed to melancholic, serves to confirm Nicky’s preoccupation with the townscapes and landscapes shown here.  The buildings, in particular, are depicted as being embedded into the land, from which they emerge, as if entirely natural, almost geological phenomena, rather than man made structures.

Nicky’s willingness to combine quiet monumentalism with an extrovert, yet subtle sense of colour owes an obvious debt to the fresco tradition that characterises such a large part of Italy’s artistic heritage.

The reference is intentional; the brief given to Nicky by the Café chain “Fratelli Deli” was to produce a series of paintings that would encapsulate the warmth, elegance, and flamboyance that for many defines the Italian experience, whilst at the same time recognising the historical legacy that is Italy’s contribution to our European Cultural Identity.

In this, surely, she has succeeded; and her vision, though uniquely personal, transmits a broad appeal that, even in this small selection of her work, manages to encapsulate both the excitement of her own visits to Italy and the spirited cultural self-awareness of the Italians themselves.

20% of the sale of Nicky’s paintings will be donated to the Toni&Guy Charitable  trust.