Oxmarket are delighted to welcome back Nicola Rose for an exhibition in the John Rank gallery, after a recent relocation to Shetland. Nicola’s love of wild and dramatic weather and landscapes means that she has this in abundance, Shetland’s wild seas, huge skies and ancient granite cliffs where glaciers once scoured dominate the land. Nicola loves the massive rock stacks which stand tall against the battering of waves and wind in the ever-changing light and feels that the land and sea have an intense physical presence. Nicola says ‘When the wind rests the silence is just as powerful and moon and stars rise into skies free of man-made light. It is beautiful and breathtaking’.

The paintings in this exhibition reflect Nicola’s need for isolated and remote wilderness in which she can immerse herself and explore in her paintings the extremes of weather and light. The process of her paintings continues to develop. The small board paintings are “en plein air”  as direct responses to her surroundings. The larger canvases, evolved from these along with drawings and photographs, are made in the studio. Paint and raw pigments are layered up, volcanic sand becomes part of the surface expressing the elemental contrast of light and shadow and dark. 

It is the ever-changing nature of this place that will continue to inspire Nicola.