By Christopher Tobutt

A Day in the Life II – three Artists in Residence is the current project at the National Gallery, where three very different artists, Nickola McCoy, David Bridgeman, and Kaitlyn Elphinstone have been asked to ‘bring their studio’ to the National Gallery, so that members of the public will not only be able to see the finished works of art, but will also be able to witness them being created. The artists have been working on their projects in the National Gallery, Harbour Place, from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm each day, from Monday, 1 – Friday, 12 June. The exhibition ends on Wednesday, 15 July.

This is the first in a three-part series, featuring each of the artists. This week, Lifestyles of Cayman will be focusing on the art of Nickola McCoy-Snell.

One of the first things you realise when looking at Ms McCoy-Snell’s artwork is that perhaps the only way to categorize it is by stating that it is nearly impossible to categorize. While Ms McCoy-Snell has recently gained a considerable reputation for her abstract and semi-abstract paintings, she has also excelled in many other different areas, working with all kinds of media whether in two, or as is the case here, in three dimensions.

One work featured in this exhibition, Fragile Fragments, which was the winner of the Fine Art category of the 2007 McCoy art exhibition, crosses the boundary between painting and sculpture. It is a strong work showing a huge face, broken into many different pieces like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, and stares out from one of the walls.

In the centre of the room is a new sculpture; a large flock of birds, apparently flying, phoenix-like, from an amorphous mass of paint apparently lying on the floor.

It speaks of hope, and resurrection when all seems lost, and is a work which can lift the spirits of the downhearted or heavy-laden.

Both works explore the relationships, points of contact, and shared vitality of apparently disparate and disconnected forms; the mess of paint on the flow and the birds emerging from it are linked only by the imagination of the observer. Likewise, the different pieces of the huge jigsaw, making up the face in the older work, Fragile Fragments, comment on the way each separate element in a society is vital to, and complimentary of, the whole.

Ms McCoy is experimental not only in the content of her work, but also in the many different and varied techniques she uses. Not content to use a brush in the ordinary way, Ms McCoy-Snell finds all kinds of unique and interesting ways to apply paint, or (whatever else she finds) to achieve the desired effect.

“I have toothbrushes; I have spoons; I have brushes that I’ve made go hard, because that way, I can just rake through things, so to get what I want,” she said.

“That’s one thing I love about art; I like to build, explore, invent. I spend my time just moving paint around…just trying it out, trying out different colour combinations and …I just like the whole thing of being creative and trying new things out,” she said.

In January of this year, Ms McCoy-Snell decided, on a whim, to submit some photographs of her recent paintings to the Gagliardi Gallery in London. As a result, Ms McCoy-Snell’s work has been selected by a juried committee to be featured in this year’s Biennale Chianciano, an exhibition which has links with the Saacchi Gallery, and will also result in Ms McCoy-Snell’s work being featured in many different high-profile international art magazines; helping her work receive the international exposure it deserves.