Day 89/100: Nicola Woodcock
Encouraging an Oil Pastel Artist Who Captures the Beauty around her Sydney Home & Studio
For my 100 Days of Encouragement Project, I’m celebrating Nicola Woodcock, whose oil pastel renderings of the Australian landscape and botanicals just make me happy.
Nicola grew up in the West Midlands in the UK, where she was always drawing. She studied Art for an “A Level” when she was 18, but went on to complete a degree in French & European Studies at Keele University.
She always had a desire to travel, so straight out of college she worked for a year or so in an advertising agency just to earn enough money to travel around the world. During that grand travel adventure, she and her partner spent a year in Australia and determined to come back and live there one day.
Back home in the UK, she found herself working as a production editor for Oxford University Press on their Higher Education textbooks. It was an interesting job, but she wasn’t happy. Though she was working closely with creative types, she wasn’t personally doing any of her own creative work.
After her 1st daughter was born, Nicola decided not to return to work. When her daughter was about 9 months old, she signed up for a life drawing class to get out of the house by herself and keep a bit of sanity. She didn’t anticipate the impact it would have on her. Those few hours each week spent creating awakened a dream to be an artist, but she really didn’t know how to make that dream a reality.
She finally fulfilled her desire to live in Australia when their young family moved to Sydney in 2010. Within 2 years, she was at home with 3 small children and dreams of artmaking were pushed to the backner.
In 2016o significant things happened. First, some friends invited her to a talk by Elizabeth Gilbert about creativity. Even though Nicola had never heard of Gilbert, she tagged along. The message that she took away was life-changing: “You have to show up every day and do the work, you can’t sit around waiting for inspiration to strike.”
Second, Nicola got an Instagram account and decided to do a 100-day challenge. She picked oil pastels as her focus because they were portable, quick & clean to use. Many of the pieces she created were made while she was at the park or the beach with her girls. She made herself post work on Instagram every day without judgement (which wasn’t easy at first). And she learned so much in the process. At the end of the challenge, she had an exhibition locally and sold many of her 100-day pieces.
And voilà! A dream was fulfilled and a career was born.
Today, living in Terrey Hills, adjacent to a stunning National Park, she draws inspiration from the surrounding bush landscape. Nicola's still life pieces are usually ‘finds’ from her neighbors’ gardens, from the roadside, or local reserves. Though, after lockdown, she took great joy in being able to go to florists and flower markets to find additional botanical inspiration for her still floral paintings!
Her landscape works are all based on her bushwalks in the area. Rather than working directly from life like she would with a still life arrangement, her landscape pieces take form in the studio using photos from her walks for reference. Memory and intuition help her develop a visual language to describe the impressive scenes and views she’s trying to capture.
Nicola has a small studio in the back garden of her house. She finds it convenient to have everything set up and ready to go just ten steps from her back door. While her kids are in school, she tries to spend as much time in the studio as possible until she it’s time to leave for school pick up. She notes that it’s always a juggle between the domestic and the creative.
Working in oil pastel means that she doesn’t erase mistakes or overlay. She prefers to place colors side-by-side, without blending, which forces her to work intuitively and confidently. She must embrace the first marks and avoid overworking to get results that are authentic and immediate.
She likes to working on wood surfaces because the pastels really adhere well and she can be vigorous in her application of pigment to get an opaque finish. She starts with a dramatic squiggle of a dark neutral color that she brushes with medium to make a thin tone for the background. Then she lets loose, launching straight into her composition.
I love the look of Nicola’s work from a distance – there’s a strong graphic feel and her still lifes always have amazing shadows that are characters in the drama in their own right. But what charms me most is getting a peek at her work close up. When she shares cropped versions and close-ups on Instagram, I am always amazed at the fantastic mark making and textures that optically blend from a distance. To me, it’s the rawness of the near view that holds the most charm.
I’ve had a box of Sennelier oil pastels for years, largely untouched (like so many art supplies that my enthusiasm wanes for after the initial flurry of purchasing all the kit). Nicola makes me want to dust them off and give them a go. She inspires me with her reminder that there’s so substitute for just getting in there and doing it. So I am grateful – not only for the beauty of her artwork – but also for the kick in the artistic pants. 😊
How You Can Be an Encouragement
Please check out Nicola’s offerings on Instagram, follow her, and send her some encouragement today by commenting on one of her posts or sending her a direct message.
Instagram: @nicolawoodcockart
Website: www.nicolawoodcock.com
