In the 1982 Elizabeth Frink spotted the raw talent of a young figurative sculptor and predicted that she would be ‘a very great artist one day’.
Twenty years on, Nicola Hicks has more than lived up to Frink’s expectations. Her distinctive straw and plaster animals, mythical creatures and now people have been exhibited all over the world and she’s already been given an MBE for her contribution to the visual arts, despite only being in her 40s.
But five years ago she upped sticks, left the comfortable art world of London, bought a flock of Herdwick sheep and set up home and studio on a wind swept Cumbrian hillside. She’s currently exhibiting on her new ‘home ground’ at the Abbot Hall in Kendal and she tells Caz Graham about adapting to life and work in Cumbria.
