CHRISSIE NICHOLLS
Artist & inksmith
I am an artist working with illustration, mapmaking, hand lettering, printmaking and artists’ books.
I trained a while ago at St Martins School of Art and Brighton Polytechnic (as it was then) with a degree in Fine Art (Printmaking), I then worked within various creative industries in a number of roles from a photographic researcher to a design agency business manager, all the while also working as a freelance illustrator and hand lettering artist.
Just over ten years ago I decided to concentrate fully on my freelance work; on commissions, creating my own work and artists’ books and also running workshops around the UK from Leigh-on-Sea to the Isle of Bute, Snape Maltings to Leominster, so almost Wales.
My work has a strong drawn element to it, using colour to enhance the stories within. I am inspired by the natural world, and by our response to the human condition and the challenges of everyday life.
In my workshops I encourage people to see the fun and light while also supporting exploration to areas that can be hard to navigate. I like to inspire awareness of our senses and show how to find the details that add colour to our journeys.
In 2021 I published my ‘The Diary of an Artist in Lockdown’ a daily visual record over five months of lockdown, to international acclaim selling out with pre-orders of the limited edition before the official publication date. I have been sketching my diaries for decades.
I have a love of maps of all kinds and can often be found looking at a map, usually because I’m lost. I’ve been commissioned to draw maps for amongst others; the Lettering Arts Trust and the University of Suffolk. I have also drawn the last three maps for, and been involved in, the River of Hope project through my GP surgery. An opportunity for grass roots community organisations to come together and make connections in a common endeavour to help to create the conditions for good health locally within the London borough of Camden.
I live in north London and love tending to my family of garden flowers and weeds.
