NICOLA YOUNG

‘Oh I Do Like to Be Beside the Seaside’ Series

The ‘Oh I Do Like to Be Beside the Seaside‘ series was inspired by family days out in British summer time.

During the colder months the coastline is a place of natural beauty. Organic shapes of the rocks, often deserted beaches and the glorious temp of the everchanging sea. Visitors tend to be dog walkers and cold water swimmers who appear as lone creatures in the distance. In the warmer months all of this changes!

It’s wonderful to see the North East beaches fill up with families enjoying a day at the seaside. Along with excited, chattering children, the day trippers arrive with an array of paraphernalia from buckets and spades, folding deckchairs, frisbees and beachballs, cool bags, towels and windbreakers – all at odds with the natural beauty of the coastline.

This series was created to capture the conflict – nature versus the man-made. Biomorphic shapes filled with the candy stripes of deckchair patterns provide an eye catching and soothing vision.

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‘Life’s a Carnival’ Series

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‘Seascapes’ Series

Seascapes are a subject I return to regularly. Living on the coastline I am lucky to see the sea each day. In my paintings, I seek to capture the essence of the coastline and its ever-changing beauty, to create pieces that evoke the feeling of being by the sea.

For me, the coastline represents a sense of freedom and possibility. It is a place where one can escape the stresses of daily life and connect with nature on a deep level. I am always striving to capture this sense of freedom and possibility.

My work is not only about capturing the physicality of the sea, or the joy of a day at the seaside, but also its emotional and spiritual significance. The sea has been a symbol of life, death and transformation throughout human history, and I aim to tap into this timeless symbolism to create works that resonate with viewers on a deeper level.

At the same time, my work is deeply personal and reflective of my own experiences and emotions. I am drawn to the coastline not only for its natural beauty, but also for the sense of peace and tranquility that it brings me. This emotional connection if reflected in my art, which is both expressive and introspective.

These paintings are my attempt to evoke a sense of the vastness, power and beauty of the sea, inviting the viewer to contemplate the mysteries and complexities of this everchanging, elemental force.

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‘Chaos and Confinement’ Series

Chaos and Confinement is an exploration of the arrangement of simple shapes. I wanted to challenge myself to evoke emotion and energy using a simplified visual vocabulary.

Shapes are arranged in either a structured manner to convey containment or more and imperfect, often falling off the edges, to give a sense of spaciousness. The paintings work with very limited colour palette to focus the viewer on repeated patterns and/ or differences

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