Red Light - Original Framed

I created this work for the Copic Marker Award, 2019. This is an international art prize hosted by Too. products inc. The creators of Copic markers. The award ceremony is held in Tokyo, Japan. This artwork was a finalist in the award, and as such, was framed and exhibited in Tokyo. I was fortunate to be able to attend the ceremony.

The artwork I created is of a woman walking in Tokyo at night in the rain. The lights from the neon signs bathe the scene in a red hue, and are reflected on the wet street. If you have spent time in Japan then you would be very familiar with the large transparent umbrellas which are so common there, sold in the convenience stores.

It is a dark, intensely coloured scene which makes quite an impact on the wall. The piece was inspired by the film Blade Runner - "The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long."

My signature is on the bottom right corner. The matboard has a sticker on it that says "copic award" as you can see in the photo. The work was framed using perspex instead of glass to be safer for international postage. The piece is now back in Australia and will be sent from the Gold Coast.

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Erin Nicholls has always been artistic, leading her to study a number of creative subjects such as ceramics‚ metalsmithing & fine arts. She has done a lot of travelling since her childhood in country Victoria, living in a number of different cities and countries. In 2003, Nicholls lived in Florence, Italy, where she had private lessons in Old Masters' oil painting techniques from a master art restorer. In 2016, she completed a Bachelor of Arts Degree with Griffith University, majoring in Art History. Nicholls' style of art evolved from oil paintings to marker and pencil illustrations, which she has been developing exclusively since 2015. Her works are mostly realistic scenes, created in her unique style which is reminiscent of Studio Ghibli animation, as well as traditional Japanese woodblock prints.

Nicholls has produced two series of works featuring Japanese streetscapes - "A Year in Japan" and "A Night in Japan". In 2018, Nicholls won Best on Paper for the Bluethumb Art Prize for her work "Smoke", from her Night in Japan series. In 2019 Nicholls was a finalist in the Copic Award, with her piece "Red Light" being exhibited in Tokyo. In 2024 she won the Australia and Pacific Regional award in the Copic Art Prize for her artwork "The Blank Page".

While Nicholls loves creating street scenes of Japan, she has also created a number of still life photorealism drawings using Copic markers, as well as portraits. In 2021 she was commissioned to create a large landscape drawing of a mountain summit. Currently she is still creating some drawings from photographs she took in Japan, as well as more portrait and still life works. She is available for marker drawing commissions.