Nicole Stevenson

Artist Statement:

I’m drawn to the coastline, the edges of land where communities have evolved, dependant on the sea and the shore. I use the house motif in my work to denote feelings of home, the creative world that we inhabit and make our own. To me it evokes a way of living from an earlier time when we made the things that we wanted and curated an environment that enriched our lives. A lifestyle choice that has come round again as we relearn the skills of recycling and repurposing. The motif is also a useful device to enable me to layer my paintings like Japanese bora fabric or freeform patchwork. I piece together patches of collage and paint to create depth and to suggest the passing of time.​

I spend time in the places I want to paint, doing water based media paintings and taking photos. Returning to the studio I work on wooden panels with layers of acrylic paint and collage papers that I have either collected or made myself with paint and different block printing methods. My work starts off intuitively and gradually I find the compositions that relate back to my reference material.​

Education

BA Honours in Drawing and Painting from Edinburgh College of Art​

PGCE from The Bolton Institute. Manchester