Nicole Rose

Nicole Rose had a great education in Art and Design; doing an art foundation at Newham, followed by a BA in Graphic Design at Central St Martins (1989-1992), London. “Both courses were extremely creative and we had the opportunity to cover all aspects of graphics and associated practices and were expected to push boundaries.”

Then followed a very successful graphic design career, 4 years at various agencies in UK and Australia, before starting her own studio with two partners. Energy Design Studio ran from 1997 to 2019 before being reformed into and-now studio, for who she still sometimes consult. Based in Dalston, Energy had a wide range of clients and worked across both print and digital projects with great success. During her latter years at Energy, Nicole mentored young designers, ran their internship programme, and annually worked alongside Central St Martins helping graduating students with their portfolios.

Nicole states; “The wish to keep painting never really left me, although for a long time, the studio was so busy and time consuming there was no time to make art”. Then, in 2014, she joined Art Class London, and started partaking in weekly lessons where she began to make art again. In 2019, Nicole stepped away from the design studio to concentrate on making art less of a hobby and more of a full time pursuit.

She has been a graphic designer for a long time, and although its principles are at the basis of her art practice – visual storytelling through symmetry, colour, balance, and the spaces in between – she finds working without the boundaries and rules set by clients is “incredibly freeing”. Nicole now creates abstract paintings and digital prints based on the natural landscape around her.

“The process starts when I’m out, usually walking my dog. I see light shining through trees, or an interesting vista. It’s more of a feeling I get than seeing an incredible view” describes the artist. Painting in oils, Nicole layers and blends various shapes of colour to recreate that emotional response onto canvas. She states; “I love the push and pull of oil paints and the process of an image evolving on the canvas. I like the uncertainty of the outcome”.

“Painting is like my meditation, and can sometimes feel like a challenge, and being in front of my mac is my go-to happy place” says Nicole. Thus, it was inevitable that she would take her paintings back into her mac to rework and reimagine them in a digital landscape. She continues; “I also want to use my skills as a designer to differentiate my practice from other artists”. Nicole uses her camera to take close-ups of sections of her paintings. Then, in Photoshop, she blends and blurs the original to create an image, or set of images, bringing with it a new balance and perspective. These works are made into limited edition giclée prints.

Nicole concludes; “The prints I make are inspired by my paintings and the consequent paintings I make are informed by the previous print I created. A circular creative motion that allows me to work as an artist and as a designer”.

Nicole Rose will be exhibiting her paintings and prints at The Other Art Fair this year in London.

You can shop Nicole’s print collection on Department Store.

www.nicole-rose.co.uk
@nicolerose_design_and_art

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