Nicky Knowles was born in London in 1970. Raised in Cambridgeshire, she was familiar from an early age with mid century British painting and the St Ives school of artists through Jim Ede’s collection at KettlesYard in Cambridge. On completion of a Fine Art degree at Bristol UWE, Nicky Knowles won the RWA young painters. In 2008 she moved to Frome where for two years she was Director at Black Swan Arts, returning to her studio full time in 2014.

“My collages explore a dialogue between paint and paper. They reflect a process of lyrical play with cut and torn forms from new and heavily worked materials which I distress using wax and paint. I love the process of distressing the paper and canvas before I start to collage and then incorporating these historic materials alongside new paper or a cleanly painted surface. There is a tension between the new and the old and the balancing of the shapes that I find endlessly fascinating”