How long have you lived on the Northern Beaches?
I moved here 12 years ago with my husband and two young children from Oxford in England.
How would you describe your art?
Contemporary Australian still life and landscapes. I use oil pastels which encourage me to eliminate fussy detail and really focus on the shapes and colours in front of me. Oil pastels are also tricky to erase or layer, so I approach the canvas boldly, embracing rather than eliminating mistakes, giving the sense of an immediate response.
What inspired your cover?
A family bushwalk and swim at Flint and Steel Beach in Winter 2021, during the long lockdown, the best day out we’d had in ages, trekking through the bush, getting glimpses of the turquoise water (reminding me of the south of France), the thrill of swimming in the cold ocean, lying on the beach in the sun to warm up at midday mid-winter but feeling like we could be on a Thai island for the remote feeling. Surrounded by driftwood we built a shelter then trekked back up the hill and went home to warm baths and a roaring fire.
What inspires you in general?
I’m really impacted by our local environment and the shapes and colours I see in the flora around me. Sometimes I’ll pick a sprig of banksia or wattle from the roadside or in a carpark to use in my still life artworks, holding the spotlight to the amazing local flora which might get overlooked as we go about our daily lives.
Did you study art?
I did study art at school but went on to study European Politics and French for my degree. After graduation I travelled, then worked in book publishing before taking a break while I raised three children. When the youngest was at preschool I decided to try to create an art career rather than return to my previous work, all starting in 2016 with a 100-day challenge to paint one oil pastel artwork a day for 100 days. I posted each to my newly created Instagram account, which opened opportunities to show work locally and I joined the Pittwater Artists Trail. Things grew organically from there and now I work from my back yard studio every day.
What’s your favourite thing about what you do?
The flexibility to shape my work around family commitments, to be my own boss, to work on whatever I want to, and to be alone in my studio for hours listening to audiobooks while I work! Bliss! A bonus is the joy that I bring to people who see my work or who own a piece. When I imagined being an artist, I thought about the creating part, but I didn’t anticipate the messages I would get from people telling me how happy my work makes them.
How can people buy and support your art?
I have a mini release at Michael Reid Northern Beaches in Newport in July which is a preliminary showing before I have a full solo exhibition there in November. You’ll be able to buy my work from their website, and I have limited edition prints and tea towels available on my website nicolawoodcock.com or you can follow me on Insta @nicolawoodcockart