108 x 154 cm | 42 x 60 in
Subject: People
Tags:
Gold,
Religious Iconography,
Teenager,
Biblical
Original painting in oil on gold fabric.
"Part of a large series of paintings entitled 'Contemporary Icons', exhibited at various locations throughout England and Scotland. 'Lithuanian Icon' and 'The Artist (Icon)' are part of a body of work that researches the transcendental purity of Christian Icon paintings. I tried to capture the lingering essence of the paintings I studied through shades of gold, blue and eyes that arouse our senses. As a painting, 'Lithuanian Icon' shimmers but also, I hope, she shimmers with a knowing curiosity not unlike the haloed figures on which she was based. She's an icon. She works in a nightclub whilst studying her degree in Politics. She wants to be a researcher for a news channel. People get angry when it's 3:07am and the bar's closed."
Nicola Wiltshire’s paintings hum with a quiet, luminous presence. Working with oil paint and charcoal on patterned fabrics - from Toile de Jouy to William Morris-inspired prints, she builds images that feel both grounded and enchanted, domestic and dreamlike.
Every surface is alive: colour fields pulse against heavy linework; plants, flowers, interiors, and glimpsed landscapes emerge with a handmade clarity that holds both tenderness and strength. Her subjects are simple - a vase, a garden, a hillside seen from a train - but they carry something larger: a reverence for the everyday, a trust in the beauty of close observation.
Wiltshire’s commitment to her materials runs deep. She hand-makes many of her oil paints and is now beginning to craft her own pastels - extending the intimacy of her process into every layer of the work. Her paintings are collected widely, often held in multiples, drawn by the same quality that moves through every piece: the transformation of ordinary life into something quietly extraordinary.
Read: A Day in the Studio of Nicola Wiltshire
Read more about Nicola's studio practice.
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