Nikki Gardham
- Alumni, 2013
- Faculty
- Young Artists Faculty
- Bespoke Courses Faculty
Biography
Nikki Gardham is an artist from Essex. Her work draws upon personal observation, memory and folklore often rooted in the landscape.
She studied at Cambridge School of Art before attending the Postgraduate Drawing Year at the Royal Drawing School. She exhibits regularly with galleries in the UK and has work acquired by the Royal Collection, Hafod Estate, Holker Hall and the Moritz-Heyman Foundation.
Her work has been recognised by the ING Discerning Eye drawing bursary, Rabley Sketchbook Drawing Prize, and The Sunday Times Watercolour Competition. Nikki also facilitates art engagement workshops in collaboration with Dulwich Picture Gallery, the Royal Drawing School, Wallace Collection and the V&A.
On drawing
Drawing from observation to me is an acknowledgement of where and who I am in a corporeal way. It’s like taking a few breaths to feel grounded in the here and now. For me this is a leaping off point into working from memory and imagination – to chart feelings, rake the unconscious and scribe it onto a surface. When my thoughts are unclear, it allows me to search in the dark and see what emerges.
I think that drawing is able to reach across the divide of things and operate in the gulf of things, bridging worlds and communicating where language fails.
Drawing – in watercolour, pencil or paint – is a way that I can catch hold of the constant flow of imagery and experiences that seem to fly past more quickly every day and attempt to funnel them into an image that will stand for all that and endure.
