Phillida Nicholson (1924–2021) was a Welsh-born artist and former Land Girl, known for her landscape paintings, woodcut and linocut prints, and tapestry designs.
Early Life and Education
Phillida Nicholson was born in Bodfari, North Wales, the youngest daughter of Molly (née Clark) and Richard Nicholson. During World War II, she served in the Women's Land Army. After the war, she studied at the Liverpool College of Art, initially focusing on sculpture before turning to oil painting and tapestry design. She furthered her studies at the Florence Academy of Fine Arts, the Académie André Lhote in Paris, and at London University, and became fluent in French and Italian.
Career
Nicholson travelled extensively throughout her career, visiting continental Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, Ethiopia, and Australia, often travelling alone and on foot. She worked as an archaeological artist on British and American excavations. Her work was exhibited at the Redfern Gallery, the Piccadilly Gallery, and the Leicester Galleries in London, as well as the Minories in Colchester and the Ashgate Gallery in Farnham, Hampshire. Her paintings toured Wales in 1953–54 and again in 1964. Her tapestry designs were woven at factories including Aubusson in France and the Dovecot Studio in Edinburgh.
Notable works include The Village (1953), The Shepherd (1956), and Bore Llachar, Aberdaron (date unknown), held by the National Museum Wales and Oriel Mon.
Later Life
Later in life, Nicholson purchased a small studio in Battersea, London, where she spent winters visiting galleries and museums. She developed dementia in her later years and died in early 2021 at the age of 96.
