Few people get the chance to visit what is known as "nature's laboratory," yet multi-disciplinary artist Christina Nick has had ample time to study the wonders of the Galapagos Islands with sketchbook and pencil.With 14 visits to the area on her pallet since 2002, Nick brings the uncanny landscape and its inhabitants home to the Brackendale Art Gallery with a diverse exhibit of mixed media, encaustic, collage and metal until the end of August."The sketchbooks are probably the most important part of the visual research of the artworks," said Nick, adding that translating the Galapagos through art can be an overwhelming experience."At first I didn't really want to make artwork based on the Galapagos because it's such a weird, very strange place. It's like basing a show on Disneyland. It's not Mickey Mouse but it's these weird blue-footed boobies and weird iconic animals."An artist in residence at the BAG for half of the year, Nick also has a studio in Southern France and has gained international recognition for her large welded steel sculptures in particular.While an impressively detailed steel dog prances in still motion in the middle of the gallery as a representation of the domesticated species that have been introduced with the area's growing human population, it is Nick's paintings of the natives and their land that dominate the exhibit. She uses maps and pieces of text from works like Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species and combines oil or acrylic paint and encaustic wax to create a brilliant contrast of depth and colour. "I like the fact that there is lots of layering so there's lots of different things you can read into a painting just by looking at it for longer," she said. "That's the same for my impression of the Galapagos: it's been layers and layers of experience that has led me to learn more about the place and it also represents the depth you get in your perception of a place after having been there more than once."Her work evolves with each trip, which became frequent as a guide for the travel company Butterfield & Robinson. After getting over the initial awe of the place over her first couple of trips, Nick began acquiring a deeper understanding not only of its beauty but also its fragile ecology as tourism increases. "The whole Galapagos theme is the hardest show I've put together because it's really hard to pinpoint what is interesting about it and it's also such a visually strange place. "It's hard not to feel like when you're painting you're exaggerating what you saw. The reality is it's an exaggerated place."Nick's sketchbooks, which are filled with landscapes, animals and notes, are just as interesting, for it's rare to be offered such an intimate glimpse inside an artist's creative process. Besides approximately 30 paintings, Nick's smaller bronze sculptures are also on display. While her fascinating pieces fill the BAG for the remainder of the summer, the sounds of Nick's sculpting will fill one of the back studios."It's really noisy," said Thor Froslev with a laugh. "She is good energy to have here. She's good company. And she just gets better and better, bolder and bolder. I've always been amazed by her work."
