Jessica Nicholson Explores Her Artistic Side

New Anderson Artists Guild member Jessica Nicholson was that kid whom everyone turned to when they needed something artistic. “If my brother’s school project needed to include a drawing or someone wanted a painting to remember a wedding day, that was me,” she said.

Once, she drew a bear head at the invitation of a newspaper advertisement for an art institute, and before long, a representative was visiting her house and then sending curriculum books through the mail. She even attended the Art Institute of Pittsburgh briefly.

But then life happened. She has been busy raising a family and making do with a series of jobs, from waitressing at a Greek restaurant to working retail at Lowe’s and Target to sorting pills at Nutra.

Nowadays, she is focused on homeschooling, which she loves. “We do a lot of outdoor things,” she said. “We’ll drive to Travelers Rest to the mountains and hang out by the river and talk about plant life and animals. I get to make it exciting.”

She has also continued to explore her artistic side, experimenting with making sculptures from the clay deposits in her backyard, painting on plates, and attempting watercolor. “I’m trying to figure out what I like and what I want to stick with,” she said.

Oil is clearly her favorite medium. “I’m never completely done with a piece,” she said. “A few months later, I’ll see something on it and have to change it. I can do that with oil.”

She often works from photographs, often incorporating aspects of multiple shots, such as a piece depicting a street in Norway that she’s been working on for a year.

She paints in a studio she’s made in a 10 by 16-foot building she owns. “I can open both doors and sit in there and paint but still feel like I’m outside,” she said.