Nicola Breach - MFA Fine Art
Liminal Lands
My wanderings have recently led me from Manchester Edgelands into the garden. The making of the garden or painting involves an intervention with form and imagination - pulling, pushing, manipulating and composting. A gentle cycle of merging and separation or perhaps a violent collision where structure impacts growth and life. The detritus of the soil exposes the health of the garden, the studio floor and the mind.
My practice uses drawing and painting as a way to record the kinetic energy between mind, body and brush. This way of working is often influenced by landscape, not simply depictions of the world around us but rather an expression of emotional and spiritual connection to an experience of the world.
Walking and observing the environment helps to inform my art; whether it’s at the Edgelands near my home in Manchester or more ambitious rambles further afield. I’m often drawn to what I find unusual at the moment when out and about and will make a visual or written record of the encounter.
In my studio, I'm not keen on the blank page or canvas and will often activate the surface by drawing or mono printing to create some disruption or noise on the working surface then by responding to the changes and shifts that arise, finding order from chaos taking the work as near or far from the source as the painting calls for.
