Niki McDonald, known for her contemporary tapestries, swaps the slow methodical art of stitching for her other passion, the fast-paced expression of painting. In keeping with her love of textiles, Niki is working on natural linen canvases and using her signature bold colours and key black lines to bring her urban stories to life. The shapes, colours, graffiti and people make up our urban landscape and inspire Niki to capture moments in time. Each painting is a forerunner for a possible needlepoint tapestry piece, she thinks it’s best to spend a week on an artwork before creating one that takes months.
Bob Girl – Strawberry, 91x122cm, acrylic paint on canvas,
Bob girl is your quintessential urban explorer, while walking down her favourite laneway, she was melting from the scorching heat of the midday summer sun. Dreaming of yesterday’s swim in the swirling, refreshing salty ocean she turned left and saw an ice-cream parlour. Inside she took refuge, it was cool, and the tubs of luscious ice-cream offered a vast array of choice. The music coming from the overhead speaker sang about Strawberry fields being forever, and then she knew, what flavour would be hers for today.
Bob Girl – Ginger, 91x122cm, acrylic paint on canvas
Bob girl is your quintessential urban explorer, while walking down her favourite laneway, her senses where alerted. Her eyes fell on some fresh graffiti, she kicked a bit of lose blue grey gravel and it landed on the doorstep of a terrace house. On retrieving it, she noticed the wonderful aroma of gingerbread baking, and hesitated, almost expecting to hear, ‘Run, run as fast as you can, you can’t catch me I’m the Gingerbread man.’
Bob Girl – Mulberry, 91x122cm, acrylic paint on canvas
Bob girl is your quintessential urban explorer, while walking down Butterfly Lane, admiring the fresh graffiti, she could see children laughing and swinging from the branches of a tree in the old car park. She thought about the question painted on the telephone exchange box, ‘Do you prefer theatre or playgrounds?’ Bob Girl smiled, the kid’s hands and faces were stained port red, their bicycle baskets brimming with freshly picked mulberries, and then, they began rapping out a tune, ‘Here we go round the mulberry bush, the mulberry bush, the mulberry bush’, she knew her answer had to be playgrounds.
Bob Girl – Rose, 91x122cm, acrylic paint on pure linen
Bob girl is your quintessential urban explorer, while walking down her favourite laneway admiring the fresh graffiti, she heard a song sweetly playing out of a convertible mustang. ‘I beg your pardon, I never promised you a rose garden, along with the sunshine, there’s gotta be a little rain sometimes.’ It all fell into place and she felt like she was wearing a pair of rose-coloured glasses.
Represented by Traffic Jam Galleries in Neutral Bay, NSW, Australia. Please follow link for more work and sales. https://www.trafficjamgalleries.com/Niki-McDonald
Tapestry Girl 