Nikyla was born in Whyalla, South Australia and grew up in the beautiful & rugged Flinders Ranges. Art and its history always interested Nikyla, but it was in 1993 whilst on a working holiday in Europe that a true fascination was ignited and she found herself spending every available moment in Art Galleries & Museums.

On her return to Australia she painted for the first time since her childhood & from that day "art" has been her life. A short time later Nikyla returned to Europe for another year & haunted the major Art Galleries spending much time studying the old masters of whom Vermeer & Caravaggio are amongst her heroes, with their extraordinary ability to capture light & atmosphere in their work.

Nikyla is solely a self taught artist with "oils" being her preferred medium, by August 2000 her work was selling faster than she could paint & she decided to take the plunge & leave steady employment to concentrate solely on her art career & become a fulltime professional realism artist.

In 2004 Nikyla began working on her extraordinary aviation scenes covering both the commercial and private sectors of aviation within Australia and around the globe. Nikyla has also recently discovered a passion for painting portraits, her subjects to date include Aviation pioneer - Nancy Bird, Rugby league Legends- Shane Webcke and Darren Lockyer, NRL Super Coach Wayne Bennett, Hollywood Movie Star and Qantas Ambassador - John Travolta plus numerous private commissions.

Nikyla also believes in giving something back to the community, since 2006 she has raised over $78,000 for the Royal Children's Hospital Foundation with the sale of her portraits and prints.

The work of Nikyla has a wide appeal and can be found in collections throughout Australia as well as the United Kingdom, USA, Spain, Germany, South Africa and New Zealand.
 

Her works are on permanent exhibition at CWM Galleries in Sydney and Morpeth Gallery in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales.

EXHIBITIONS & PRIZES