Okavango Palms, watercolor 20×16″ by Alison Nicholls

Anteating Chats in the Kalahari, watercolor 24×30″ by Alison Nicholls

Khutse Sparrow Weavers, watercolor 24×30″ by Alison Nicholls

I have been nominated to take part in a Facebook Art Challenge by my friend and fellow artist Karryl, who creates wonderful whimsical animal sculptures. Thank you, Karryl! The challenge is to post 3 images of my art every day for 5 days, each day nominating a new artist to take part in the challenge. Although this is a Facebook challenge, I decided to post the same pieces to my blog. And, like many other artists who are taking part in the challenge, I’ve decided to use these posts to show you my artistic journey, showing artwork from different years to illustrate how my style developed over time.

I really began to paint when I moved to Africa. Since childhood I’d really only been interested in drawing landscapes. Drawing is still very important for me and watercolor allowed me to combine drawing with color. Having not studied art, I had no exposure to other media, so I stuck with the only media I knew. These pieces were probably completed between 2000-2003 At the time I really wasn’t keeping good records, or taking particularly good photos of my work. And, as you can see, my watercolors were quite detailed and realistic. These were no doubt completed from photos, but already I can see the use of a limited palette of colors in each piece, a careful composition and an element of space, features which still exist in my work today.

Tomorrow, I’ll be posting the next set of images – Wildlife in Detail.

And the next artist I’d like to nominate for the challenge is Asher Jay. She visited my studio in the summer and we had a great day talking about art and conservation. You may already have seen her work. If not, watch her posts, she has some great images to share!

Until tomorrow…
Alison

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Art Inspired by Africa