Born in England in 1975, Nicholas studied at Bristol Art School in the 1990s. After travels through South America, he ‘washed up on the shores’ of Australia in 2003, making Melbourne his home.
Nicholas has exhibited widely in the UK, and Australia, holding solo exhibitions in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. His first solo exhibition, All that Remains, was inspired by the mummies of the Atacama desert (Chile) and by the remains of animals and trees in Australia’s arid outback. Since then he has gone on to investigate the seemingly random strata of shed bark, giant structures of driftwood, and a return to the figure, with the exhibition Salvage, large format works using the body as a fleshy container for imagined anatomical landscapes.
In tandem to his art practice, Nicholas works as an art director and multimedia designer on a broad range of projects both in London and Melbourne.
Nicholas used his Antarctic experience to build up a body of drawings from observation and engaged a range of audiences through presentations, studio and school visits, as well as online discussion groups. He has also established a web site which gives the arts and education communities an insight into the vastness of the continent and the reality of Antarctic life.
Following his journey south, Nicholas also produced illustrations for former Arts Fellow Tanya Patrick's Polar Eyes: An Antarctic Journey, a children’s activity book. A children’s Antarctic art exhibition at Parliament House in 2009 featured these illustrations.
Some of the art works produced as a result of this Fellowship appeared in the exhibition Drawing South at Albury Regional Art Gallery in 2010. Images from this series were also used in time-lapse animations that act as living digital paintings. Nicholas says, “These animations are my response to the unique landscape and solve my desire to go beyond the 2D of conventional drawings.”