gail nichols
Braidwood, New South Wales, Australia
Gail Nichols at work on The Road Home in her studio in Braidwood, Australia, 2020.
Gail Nichols, Fire and Rain, 2012. Soda vapor glazed stoneware, 23 cm x 24 cm x 21 cm. Photo: Michel Brouet.
In Australia, the coronavirus crisis hit us just when as emerging from an unprecedented summer bushfire season. As volunteer firefighters, my husband and I were on the front line daily. The fires literally reached our doorstep, burning all of our 120 acres. In a fight I hope never to see again, we managed to save the house, the studio and sheds. The fires were finally extinguished in February by flooding rain. The waters receded, green began to replace the black ashen landscape, and we craved a bit of normality.
But from overseas came reports of a new crisis, a deadly pandemic on the rise. Soon we also faced lockdown in Australia. Fortunately we have so far avoided the health system overloads and horrific death tolls experienced elsewhere. But lives have been lost, and it has been a time of uncertainty, isolation and economic disruption.
Ironically, for me forced isolation has returned some of the normality I craved during the fires. It has been an opportunity to quietly unwind, far from the front line of the COVID-19 crisis. I have returned to the studio and resumed my textile artwork which was put on hold through the summer. The bush and garden are recovering, but scars and memories remain. My recently completed hooked rug, The Road Home, reflects my relationship with the landscape, renegotiated daily through observation. This is a time to be quietly creative and contemplative, as an artist in residence at home in my own studio.
Gail Nichols, The Mountain Blew Back, 2013. Soda vapor glazed stoneware, 36 cm x 44 cm x 44 cm. Photo: Michel Brouet.
DURING THe LOCKDOWN, GAIL NICHOLS completed a rug entitled ‘the road home’ that she began working on a year ago, but put on hold during the summer bushfire season. the isolation allowed her to regain some sense of the normality she had craved during the fires.
Gail Nichols, The Road Home, 2019-20, in progress. Working the edging on the nearly finished rug provides an opportunity to work outside with a view of the landscape.
Gail Nichols, The Road Home, 2020. New and recycled fabric hooked on primitive linen, 130 cm x 180 cm
Gail Nichols, Lily Pond, 2019. New and recycled fabric hooked on primitive linen, 152 cm x 90 cm.
Gail Nichols, Blue Garden, 2019. New and recycled fabric hooked on primitive linen, 152 cm x 97 cm