Nicole McPherson - What’s Up?

61 x 61cm. Acrylic on canvas

As a keen observer of human emotion, Nicole McPherson’s art is about capturing the
kaleidoscope of mood and feeling – often raw and contemplative, and reflective of her own personal experience. Her works are known for their honesty and depth and are driven by the power of colour.

Having experimented with art as a child, career and family life led her along different paths, until she returned to her passion, full-time, 5 years ago. Taking a ‘deep dive’ into her work, she pursued study initially and, more recently, has ‘emerged’, competing, exhibiting and showing her works.

Nicole’s creative range includes figurative and abstract, and she uses both forms to capture the humanness of life and its deep evolution. Drawing on her own experiences as a child and her teenage years, she expresses the formative emotions of life, and the places and experiences that encased them. There is a truth to the moods she captures, and it’s an honesty of the whole human condition that she wants to convey. There is fun and love and generosity in life, as much as there is the other, and it’s this ‘real life’ that she aims to convey through her art.

As a busy mother of two, her lifestyle enforces an urgency in her painting – revealing itself in broad strokes and expressive form. Contemporary in nature, her style is fresh and clean – with the intention being to communicate with a minimum of ‘fuss’.
Leveraging acrylic and mixed media products, her works are generous in colour and media – as she believes colour is the primary conveyor of mood. Layering products and imagery, there’s a richness and depth to them, shining through the finished product to show their history. Whilst they capture the moment, and seize expression that’s gleaned in a glance, it’s also about providing the backstory. For Nicole, it’s about sharing the ‘real’ human experience and giving her viewers a place to stop and think.

Nicole competes in many local and national art competitions and, more recently, has been a finalist in the Aspire Foot Square Competition 2020, the Aspire Gallery Standing Still Competition 2021, the Lethbridge 20000 Small Scale Awards 2021 and 2022, and The Doyles Art Award 2022. She has also recently won an ‘Acquisition Prize’ at the Aspect Art Show 2022.

She cites her greatest influences as Van Gogh, Basquiat and Gary Komarin, and is fascinated with the form of street art and the YBAs.