Sophie Nicoll

Growing up between Barbados and the UK planted something in me that I’m still painting my way through. The Caribbean reef, the garden, the particular quality of tropical light – it was a lot to take in as a child and it hasn’t left me. Later, years of living and working in South East Asia layered everything again: different heat, different flora, a different relationship with the sea.

I now split my time between Zürich and the UK, which adds its own unexpected ingredient – Alpine precision, Swiss light, and the strange pleasure of painting tropical colour in a cool climate. The distance seems to intensify everything.

My work is primarily painting and pen & ink – oil, watercolour, and an ongoing obsession with what ink can do when you give it enough time and a good subject. The subjects tend to be coral, jungle, botanical, things that reward looking closely. I take private commissions, portrait commissions, and work with hotels and interior designers on site-specific pieces.

I love what I do. That probably shows.

My work is inspired by the Fauves and Impressionists, by Klimt, Botticelli, by the energy of colour and the precision of line. Trained in art history, I read the world as a visual document – every interior, every street, every face tells you something about how people lived and what they were reaching for.