Women in Art 278 Magazine October 2015 | Page 42

Australian artist Nicole Grimm-Hewitt Contemporary Painting acrylic on canvas or linen Born in Melbourne in 1967, I moved to the South Coast of NSW when I was 9 years old. In 1990 I started a career in Graphic Design, working in a design studio, commercial printery and a cycling magazine company. I’m now a self-employed designer at Rockpool Graphics and a full time artist. Although the main emphasis of my work is seascapes, beach scenes and water study, there is also a strong connection to the land. I create pieces that link to my love of the outdoors wom en ART page 42 including forest scenes, Australian bush-tracks and also cycling related paintings and sketches. Working with acrylic on canvas or linen, many of my paintings are of a dominant landscape or seascape and incorporate a subtle living element. As a child, our family holidays were camping trips - either inland by a river, or in the scrubby bush land by the sea. My parents instilled in me a love for the outdoors, an appreciation for our beautiful country and more importantly the simple joys of just observing. In more recent years my passion for cycling has had an influence on my art. The exhilaration, the freedom and even the bliss of solitude - it’s these things I try to capture in my art. Living on the coast for most of my life, the rhythm of the ocean continues to fascinate me. Like us, the sea has many moods and a trip to the beach is often the way to find answers. Whether it’s a wild and stormy sea or a bright sunny day with lapping waves, it is a true inspiration. I’ll never tire of painting it...