"From the Heart to the Hands"

  From My Hands to Your Eyes — How My Art Travels There is a kind of work that happens long before anything is seen. It happens when you steal time — not from others, but from noise. Time to listen to your own thoughts. Time to sit with an idea without rushing it into usefulness. Time to teach yourself something new, even when no one is watching. This is where my work begins. The Workbench Stage — paint, paper, and quiet concentration This is where the ideas first arrive — messy, real, honest, full of colour. My tools stay close. My desk fills quickly. My hands get busy. Artist Nicky Bourke studio desk Turning artworks into shareable creations Some pieces sit together in ways that surprise me — a teacup, a paper bloom, a card, a colour test … all leading somewhere I can’t quite see yet. These aren’t just “products.” They began as moments at my desk — paint, paper, curiosity — transformed into something printable, giftable, or collectable anywhere in the world. When pai...

Who I am today is because of who they were — and how we can now share it with others... Why this story matters Art isn’t only what’s on the paper—it’s the hands, the history, and the hilarious detours behind it. I grew up with paint-splattered mugs, half-finished vases, plates, rocks, and a mother who could turn a quiet afternoon into a full-blown creative experiment. Today, I’m bringing those pieces (and my great-grandmother’s watercolours from over a century ago!) out of the attic and into the world—thanks to a very modern toolkit. Growing up in Waikanae, a small town on the Kāpiti Coast of New Zealand, I spent quite some time watching as my mother learned to paint, asked for feedback, and continued navigating her own life in colour. My great-grandmother was a talented watercolour painter herself, but likely wasn’t aware of how her art would touch me 100 years later—a few of her pieces I’m lucky enough to have and enjoy as wall p...