MA Alumni Nichola Stott, 47 from Billingham, will be a featured artist in The Baltic x Fenwick exhibition due to open this month! Following a successful career as a Data Scientist she came back to education to develop her creative practice, her submission for the exhibition includes work that was created during her Masters degree.

The exhibition will showcase painting, sculpture, photography, video and more by artists, makers, self-taught creatives and hobbyists based in North East England, alongside several works by established artists. Read on to find out more about the exhibition, her work and what it’s like studying with us at Postgraduate level.

Your work will be featured at the Baltic as part of the BATLIC x Fenwick open call tell us about it: 

It came about as I was discussing looking for a suitable open call opportunity with an aunt of mine, when she mentioned the BALTIC X Fenwick opportunity towards the end of last year. The submission process was really simple and also free, and required submitting upto two works with photographs and a short description of the pieces through an online process. It feels incredibly exciting to be featured and has really reinvigorated my passion for my more intuitive pieces, as lately I’ve been focusing more on decorative art.

The exhibition itself features over 100 local artists (you had to be from NE or TS postcodes), Artworks were selected from over 1400 submissions by an expert panel including musician and lead singer with Maxïmo Park, Paul Smith; artist Jasmina Cibic; Leo Fenwick, Strategic Partnerships Director, Fenwick; Niomi Fairweather, Baltic Curator; and Rose McMurray, Baltic Assistant Curator.

What work will you be displaying?

I submitted two pieces for consideration, which were actually a pair of paintings from my second module in my MA Arts Practice, (Specialist Practice) and the one which was selected is called Safe Harbour, which is a mixed media painting inspired by a trip to Craster Harbour.

The two are part of a collection I’ve called Coast. I’d set myself a brief to expand my materials competency and accelerate my process within my practice. My practice is abstract expressionist and I like to think of my outcomes as engrams, which is the neuroscience concept of a total memory file in the human brain, where it’s theorised that we store the total sensory experience of a memory; from emotions to sights and scents (and explains why the discovery of an old family photograph, or the whiff of a perfume you might not of worn for a number of years can transport you to the emotional memory of the time).

My process therefore starts with field research and first-person immersion in a place and situation, absorbing all of the sensory stimuli of the subject area. This is then expressed in my work using a combination of materials, and in the case of safe Harbour, incorporates sea water and sand medium so that the piece becomes a physical as well as representational embodiment of the experience.

You studied our MA Arts Practice degree how did you find the experience?

Studying the MA at The Northern School of Art was invaluable to me. I’d studied Sociology in my first degree and had a 20 year career as a data scientist, so whilst I was developing a practice of sorts I lacked the context and language to really understand what I was doing and how to further my practice. The MA really gave me that understanding, drive and direction as well as confidence that I could develop what I love doing into some sort of living.

Let us know any projects that you are working on!

I’m currently working on two projects at the moment, the first is nearing completion and it’s a series of decorative absttract paintings. The second is a phase two to the Coast collection that I started in module two, and will require another field trip this time to Banburgh and Lindisfarne again!

You can see Nicholas work on her website or head to her Instagram.

If you are interested in taking the next steps in academic and practice-based research or are looking to return to university to develop your practice our postgraduate degree might be for you. Find out more about the pathways we offer and how to apply here.