Walsall New Art Gallery puts Barbara Nicholls watercolour works on display

Barbara Nicholls' display 'sedmientary flow' at Walsall New Art Gallery is available for the public to view until November 19, after officially opening yesterday. (FRI)

Her work involves manipulating the behaviour of colour pigments in different quantities of water. Through this she paints pictures of collective memories of natural spaces, landscapes and of the body.

Ms Nicholls, from London, said: "When I create my watercolours on paper I recall places I have experienced and others I imagine as the work forms. Some seen and others sensed.

"I remember ancient meandering pathways; natural and man-made dams and bridges across rivers; the controlled carrying of water in aqueducts and canals; flooded fields with lines of debris left behind after the water has retreated; tide marks on beaches; cumulus clouds over hills reflected in ponds; coloured mineral and sediments forming lines on the banks of rivers; varying depths and shapes of geological layers in cliffs and quarries revealing past events and movements of the earth."

The concept of her work is that her paintings do not refer to a specific place but touch people's personal memory of the natural landscape.

Martin Holman, who writes about modern and contemporary visual art, has written the words for a 128-page catalogue of Ms Nicholls' work that people will be able to buy when they visit the exhibition for a special price.

Mr Holman said: "Nicholls has followed the idiosyncrasies in the behaviour of her materials and has orchestrated them into resonant shapes that, while never declaring themselves in any specific identity, nonetheless touch collective memories of the experience of natural spaces, of the landscape. In that way, she formulates a new reality."