Nicky Ward Art » Latest Artwork

Something a bit different..

nicky — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 23:05:20 +0000

When I was younger I liked creating little made-up worlds and creatures in coloured pencil – it would keep me quiet for hours! My brother and his housemate are fans of my earlier doodles, and when my brother asked me to spend maximum 2 hours doing a small doodle for his housemates birthday, I forgot just how long I used to spend getting lost in my imagination and after 5 hrs of happily doodling away, it started me thinking about how whilst some artists will capture their thoughts with a single brushstroke of colour, I’ll happily spend ages and ages and ages intricately drawing or cutting or painting or sticking!

With the doodles, it’s the process of going into an imaginary world that I enjoy, and with my collages it’s thinking about special memories of a place or person I don’t want to forget – it’s not always simply turning an idea into a drawing – when I draw/find something to put in a collage, that will generate ideas, and the whole process normally all goes on in one drawing or collage. I rarely, if ever sketch and develop an idea before I start it properly – the development of the idea is all on the same canvas. Collecting all the bits and pieces and working out where they best fit helps me better understand and consolidate my thoughts about people and places, and re-live happy experiences – This probably explains why I don’t like to finish a collage!

This post is a bit long and rambling now, just wanted to write my thoughts down somewhere, and here is as good a place as any!

Dad Picture almost finished…

nicky — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 21:12:27 +0000

This picture is in memory of my dad who died in October last year following a two year battle with cancer. The writing is a mixture of dad’s own beautiful poetry and notes my two brothers wrote for the eulogy they read at his funeral (they spent a lot of time, and went through a lot of paper to get dad’s tribute just right. I couldn’t let the notes be thrown away!) You’ll also notice blue tack wrappers (dad relied on the stuff to fix any DIY problem – including broken light fittings!) , hedgy the hairbrush (When I was younger I bought it as a present for him despite him having no hair!) and other bits and pieces that remind me of him. The photos I’m working from make me smile every time I look at them!

The Chesterfield Canal Collage – Really Nearly Finished!!

nicky — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 19:35:40 +0000

I’ll probably carry on adding bits and pieces to this over the next few months, but think that it looks lively and captures the feel of the festival – Thanks to all my helpers over the weekend, I’m very happy with the (almost!) finished result. Let me know what you think (you can leave a comment below)…

I’ll be exhibiting this along with some of my other work at the Wirksworth Festival on the 12th and 13th September. If you haven’t been to the festival before, its a fantastic event – Loads of artists display their work in peoples homes and buisnesses throughout Wirksworth – I’ll be just off the Market Place, in Crown Yard. There’s loads of performances and stuff going on, so there’s plenty to keep the whole family entertained. The website is www.wirksworthfestival.co.uk if you want to find out more.

What I’m working on now…

nicky — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 19:28:28 +0000

The wonderful Mr S…

Canal Collage!

nicky — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 22:51:59 +0000

The Chesterfield Canal Festival was a great event – lots of children helped cut and stick and paint using all the rubbish visitors and exhibitors gave me over the weekend! In a week or so, I’ll have a bit of time to finish the collage, and will put some more pictures up. For now though, here’s some pictures from the event itself…