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Nicky Knowles

Nicky Knowles was born in London in 1970 and has studied in Cambridge and Bristol in England and Bologna in Italy. Many of Knowles' drawings are worked in pastel and charcoal but her repertoire extends from acrylics to oils.

Knowles interests in travel, and particularly in walking through landscapes, have been strongly influenced by the enormous spaces of the fens around Cambridge, where she grew up. "...it was the land that fed my imagination. The silhouettes of trees are perfect sculptures, the flat plains uncluttered and calm and the perfect contrast and retreat from the hustle and bustle of modern life".

In her work, Knowles explores a place on distinct levels; its existence, its memory and the perceived presence and absence of elements within it. Like the fens, often considered barren and empty, her works initially seem to belie the full and exciting drama of a view. There is a clear inspiration from Turner here. Like him she reveals the presence of activity and population through obscured and abstracted views. At each sight of a work, the viewer feels that they have chanced upon a scene through a morning mist, or the last light of dusk, a scene where the solitary viewer stands alone for a rare moment before the throng of what lies within reappears.