Hunting Review - Summer 2003 - Reaching new heights
If you are seeking the archetypal artist, you should pay a visit to the studio of Nicholas Charles Williams. It’s a former lifeboat station and although nearly 70 years have passed since the brave volunteer crews launched their vessel into the wildest seas, the atmosphere of the building is still unmistakable. Nicholas, who won the top Hunting Art Prize in 2001 with ‘Searching III), not only creates striking images, he produces some very big ones. Working on scaffolding on which models sometimes have to pose as high as 30ft above the ground – his work is physically as well as creatively demanding. Michelangelo would empathise.

For Nicholas, who started painting as a young child, ideas tend to arrive unbidden and often when he is not thinking about the subject at all. He admits that over the 10 years he has been a practising artist he has become more discerning whether or not to pursue a particular theme – hardly surprising given the time, effort and materials involved in his work.

He attests to the influence of the Cornish environment, particularly the way the weather can change suddenly, filling the big skies with threatening clouds while the sea boils. Like his fellow Cornwall based artists, he does not draw directly on the environment but firmly believes in its powerful influence on him.
Whatever the Cornish effect may be the flame of creativity burns as brightly today as when the Newlyn School was capturing the attention of the art world.