FLATTENED FORMS

Nicholls’ bright blobby shaped paintings and voids float on the wall. The asymmetrical, silhouette forms are derived from the outline of brush marks in previous paintings. They are writ large and cut out to be objects of their own. Her challenge, then, is to answer to the unusual shape in paint, using abstract mark making to respond to the constraints of the odd contours.

These are not rectangular picture-paintings to look into. They instead swell and bleed into the expanded space on the wall. At the same time, they are flattened sculpture. Not expanding out indefinitely but holding tight to the wall.

Each painted mark is considered and allowed to sit in the painting for days, sometimes weeks, before the next can be made. Each mark is made to maintain the tension, not solve it. This may mean a clashing colour, texture, geometric vs organic forms, transparency vs flat colour, which are pitted against each other to activate each element in the painting.