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Nicky Knill-Jones: Artist Biography

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​Born in 1974, Nicky Knill Jones is a passionate artist whose work celebrates the dynamic interplay of light, colour, and the natural world. Through her photography and paintings, she captures the beauty and energy of ever-changing landscapes, focusing on the dramatic coastlines of Cornwall and Devon.

Fascinated by the sea, weather fronts, cloud formations, and expansive skies, Nicky's art reflects her deep connection to nature. Her work conveys the raw power and fleeting moments of the natural world, where bold, fresh, and instinctual brushstrokes bring her vision to life. Each painting is characterful, imbued with the emotion and vitality of her surroundings.

A graduate of Kingston University, where she studied Art, Nicky has been painting since her early years. Over time, she has honed her skills and developed a distinctive style, working both from her studio and en plein air, immersing herself in the landscapes she loves to portray.

With a keen eye for detail and a unique ability to convey movement and atmosphere, Nicky Knill Jones creates works that resonate deeply with her audience, offering a glimpse into the untamed beauty of the British coastline.

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Future Exhibitions in 2025

2025   Terrace Gallery, Penryn 29th Oct-22nd Nov

2025   26th July  - Salthouse Gallery, St. Ives. Cornwall

2025   12th April - Salthouse Gallery, St. Ives. Cornwall

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Past Exhibitions

2024    Salthouse Gallery, St. Ives. Cornwall

2024    Berkeley Square Hotel, Bristol

2024    Salthouse Gallery, St. Ives. Cornwall

2023    Aubergine Art Gallery, Wimbledon 

2023    Bocabar, Bristol 

2023    Salthouse Gallery, St. Ives. Cornwall

2023    Salthouse Gallery, St. Ives. Cornwall

2022    Salthouse Gallery, St. Ives. Cornwall

2018    Adam Gallery ,  Bath 

2015    D’ Artist Gallery, Singapore

2013    Beyond the Sea Gallery,  Perranporth Gallery

2012    Sevenshed, Solo Exhibition, Bristol

2010    Padstow Gallery, Padstow 
2010    2 Floors,  Solo Exhibition, Carnaby street, London June

1996    Old Post Office, Group show, Kingston, London
 

Education 

​2002: PGCE Art & DESIGN Exeter University. Exeter

1993–1996: BA (Hons) Multi Media. Kingston University. London

1992–1993: Art Foundation Course. Kingston University. London

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Seascape and Landscape

CAPTURING THE WAVES.

Nicky Knill-Jones captures the wild Atlantic seaboard  in Cornwall in full roaring swing. Focusing, as well she might, on the rugged, weather- beaten north Cornish coast, the artist captures the sheer weight, power, energy and movement of rolling Atlantic breakers. 'Porthcurno Energy', 'Waves Crashing' and 'Porthcurno Light' are speedily executed pictures that say it all.  This subject-matter unleashes gestural and painterly handling with brush dipped into a credible and felicitous naturalistic palette of jade, blue grey and foam white.


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Knill- Jones studied in the early to mid 1990s at Kingston School of Art in Surrey, following in the footsteps of kitchen sinker John Bratby, a Kingston alumnus from the fifties. Like Bratby, she is unafraid of paint and wields it like an abstract expressionist while remaining faithful to representational and descriptive imperatives of an ozone filled landscape that inspires her imagination and guides her hand and eye.

Knill- Jones's engagement with the mercurial subject of the sea places her in a venerable tradition of Cornish, and indeed British marine painting epitomised by Julius Olsson, Borlase Smart from the early twentieth century and Robert Jones from contemporary art. 

PETER DAVIES.   Author, art critic and artist.

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