Becky Nuttall Artist Poet Devon, United Kingdom

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Becky comes from an artistic and literary background. She is based in Brixham Devon. She studied art in the early seventies but was diverted by literature and, latterly, the social development of adolescents. The research undertaken for her MA reconnected her to her own adolescence, young motherhood and its influences. Becky is a fine artist, painting mostly in acrylic, gouache and ink block.

Becky Nuttall is a British artist, poet and writer whose work explores themes of her personal experiences as an older female artist and poet, her memory of being an adolescent in the Seventies and intergenerational expectations imposed on women in the mid twentieth century by the traditional roles of the home, education, art and customary relationships.

Becky was born and raised in the southwest of England. She is influenced by the artistic culture and religious environments of her youth and growing up with artists. She reflects on being female amongst predominantly male artists at home, at art school and the juxtaposition of her traditional Catholic convent education and the countercultural influences of the 1960s and 1970s.

Works include paintings that represent ‘our generation’. This is the generation of women born in the 1950s and were adolescents in the 1970s, whose time was then and remains relevant now. Becky’s work evokes nostalgia for the glory and sadness of being young and that remembering being young matters. She married at 18yrs in 1975 and had her first child when she was twenty. Her work references the domestic standards expected from young mothers in 1970s while trying to maintain connected to a creative and visible life.

She has exhibited at The Royal Academy, South West Academy of Fine and Applied Arts, New York, Sheffield, Hereford, Brick Lane, Hackney, Teddington, Derbyshire and in the South West of England.

Artistic Practice

Becky is a figurative and narrative artist. Her art often complements her poetry, creating a multi disciplinary body of work that addresses themes of nostalgia and the excitement of youth. She uses photographic memories of family and friendships to examine the intersections of personal and collective histories of fashion, music, popular culture and feminism.

Works have included females wearing the clothes of, and posing as, male rock stars and poets. This theme is influenced by paper dolls found on the back of comics such as Bunty. This work looks at the role of gender and the male gaze in creating cultural icons.

Room portraits of spaces that show her connection with the significant rooms in her family history

She paints in oil, acrylics, gouache and inktense block on canvas, canvas board, paper and wood. Her influences include pop art, graphic line drawing, 17th and 18th century portraiture, Modernist art and literature, Dada and Surrealism.

Her collages are made from materials including antiquarian prints, bible and children’s book illustrations, art school work belonging to her family and herself, vintage found objects and textiles.

Collages include re interpretations of iconic religious art and cultural figures, some in the tradition of paper dolls.

All images and artwork © Becky Nuttall

Poetry and Writing

Becky’s poetry and writing seeks the spaces between art, faith, and rebellion, frequently drawing on autobiographical experiences. Her sharp but lyrical work often challenges patriarchal narratives and examines how women navigate and resist traditional conventions. She is known for her vivid imagery, poignant reflections, and the ability to convey complex emotions with clarity and resonance.

Finalist for writing Touchlines of Fortitude Awards - Exhibition celebrating the resilience and creativity of women in the arts and sport - The Beach Gallery Teddington London 2025 - supported by The Arts Council UK

Instamatic Karma - Volume One - one of six modern poets from the current crop of Modernist Beat Poets 2025 - © Sauve Collective 2025

Her contemporary place writing and poetry records the cultural heritage of her environment and upbringing. Her house and neighbours' were passage houses, one revealing a significant cache of deliberately concealed objects. A small cache was found in Becky's house during renovations. She seeks the lost heritage of a farming and smallholding community, the destruction of rural landscapes and architecture.

Her current writing project is 'Eden in an Urban Stream'. This records in poetry and prose the rural landscape in her childhood which included small holdings, farms, rural industries alongside an intermittent reciprocal spring called Laywell. Now lost, it was once a holy well (Lady Well) and the spring was recorded in the Royal Society Philosophical Transactions of 1693 and 1732. The Spring flowed into the River Eden, a waterway that now flows mostly through urban gardens, culverts and underground.

Academic Studies

Becky attended art school in the Seventies. As a mature student she gained a BA(Hons) in Literature including studies in Art History/Contemporary Cultures of Display/Academies, Museums and Canons of Art. She has an MA(Ed), an Advanced Diploma in Special needs in Education and a Postgraduate Diploma in the Social Sciences that incorporates child and adolescent social development. Before retiring, she worked in education for nine years and Youth Justice for fifteen years. Her writing and art is influenced by her academic and professional background. This adds depth to her exploration of youth, creativity, and the constraints imposed by institutional systems.

'Nick's Gift' poetry anthology published by Beatnpress. Cover art by Laura Page 2023

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Artwork

Three Graces, 2023

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Artwork

Becky Nuttall Artist Poet Devon, United Kingdom

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