Nicola Read, now a resident of Derbyshire, England, was actually born many thousands of miles from there in Hong Kong, and also lived in Cyprus, Nottingham, Leicestershire and Gloucestershire before eventually deciding on Derbyshire. Nicola Read was actively encouraged from day one to paint and explore her creativity by her parents, stating: “My whole family is very artistic and creative, from oils and watercolors through to sculpture and modelling and they have provided firm support and encouragement for the development of my paintings”. Creatively thwarted at secondary school, Nicola Read finally found her artistic creative energy at college, where she studied photography. To this day, it was thanks to her photography roots put down during this initial period, which paved the way for her entry into the world of art..  According to Read, this juncture in her life coincided with a renewed interest in painting, having been encouraged by a close friend around this time. Such was both her ability and promoting of her wares, that Nicola Read soon found her painted work in demand, resulting in commission invites as well as approaches from business owners looking for original artwork to place in their premises.

Nicola Read won a place to exhibit in a Derby Arts Festival competition and since then her work has been keenly sought after by varying establishments, including galleries, offices, bars, and restaurants, along with many private commissions as mentioned above. Transient and often fleeting emotions and personal mindsets tend to furnish and then go on to nourish Read’s creative fixations then and there, and be they sense of euphoria, sadness or anger they all serve to inspire her pieces, whilst colors play their own integral part in the process. Read concurs that absolutely anything from the true vibrant contrasting colors of traffic lights to the blue hues of a cornflower or multi-colored sky can and do pique her artistic interest enough to establish a starting point to a specific study. Otherwise nature and music play pivotal roles in influencing her individual and collective bodies of work.

Nicola Read is particularly interested in expressing emotion through her paintings,whether it be anger, sadness, or joy. She explores these emotions through color and form, and prefers expressing form through patterns found in nature, like a school of fish or a flock of birds.Fascinated over by David Attenborough, often found hilariously slipping and sliding on icebergs on YouTube and even have a chocolate bar named after them. So proving their popularity and cementing their inclusion in our psyche. Penguin and ‘other predominantly aquatic friends’ we hasten to add, including fish a lot of the time. Leaving Read’s fish to one side (although never for long on account of their equally amazing visual pronunciation), the artist’s penguin paintings are illustratively stunning and stridently captured.