Nichola Theakston

British, born 1967

Nichola Theakston’s work is inspired by animal form. She aims to explore and understand elements of our shared consciousness with animals.

Theakston has established herself as one of the UK’s foremost contemporary sculptors working within the animal genre. She has produced work in ceramic, and also casts her sculptures in bronze in small editions. Theakston’s bronzes are first modelled in clay and then cast at a fine art foundry in Wales using the lost wax process from an original clay sculpture. She works closely with the foundry throughout the process and patinates each sculpture personally.

Her art foundation course at Leeds Jacob Kramer was followed by a Bachelors Degree in Fine Art from Exeter University and a masters at Cardiff University. Since beginning to sculpt in ceramic and bronze, she has exhibited widely across the country and in Europe and is collected enthusiastically by many who appreciate her exceptional natural ability and skill, coupled with sensitivity and awareness of her subject.

There is a classical thread running through Theakston’s work in the formal approach taken to the understanding of her subject. This is combined with a looser, expressive painterly application of surface on the clay, and in the patination of her bronzes.

“My journey with bronze patina is still evolving. I feel I’ve scratched the surface only, but I love the chaos and control. The torch, the chemical and the application offer me a creativity akin to the paint and paper on which I began my art education many years ago…the mystery and excitement offered by the elements has a commonality with the kiln process, and my expanding knowledge and honing of craft that ceramic practice involved has stood me well.”

In discussing her work, Nichola explains “the notion that an individual creature may experience some ‘otherness’ or spiritual dimension beyond our understanding of its instinctive animal behaviours, is the premise behind much of my work, and portraiture a vehicle to I use to explore feeling and expression. Primates in particular are an obvious and compelling choice of subject given their genetic proximity to human-kind, but it is important to me that all subjects are sculpted with sensitivity and empathy, inviting the viewer to relate and reflect”.

Besides exhibiting at many of the country’s leading ceramic and fine art fairs Nichola has work selected and exhibited annually for ‘Wildlife Artist of the Year’ in London, raising funds for endangered wildlife. She has completed commissions include designing and making trophies for Lush Cosmetic’s ‘Lush Prize’, rewarding initiatives within the world of science and lobbying toward bringing animal testing to an end.