Nicholas Wilton creates paintings from a place of freedom, optimism and intuition, with dynamic compositions that reflect a liberating personal journey. “In life,” he says, “it sometimes is necessary to just let go of everything and simply leave. To go off to sea...At best this is slightly daunting, and at worst it is extremely frightening. It is in this difficulty, however, this letting go, that has informed and galvanized this new series of paintings.”

Like the expressionist painter Kandinsky, who believed deeply in the spiritual power and content of art, Wilton charges his canvases with the energy of thought. His atmospheric paintings are visual poems that hint at underlying dialogues. Their graphic, rhythmic compositions seize our attention, while their unexpected textures, paint drips, and embedded symbols invite close examination.

Made during a period of courageous personal and creative exploration, Wilton’s latest works push his private visual language and color palette further into innovative territory. As he says, they “hold within them both darkness and lightness, as well as tremendous optimism and joy. Joy in re-finding my faith, not just in intuition and spontaneity, but also in life itself.”

Born in San Francisco, Wilton was educated at the Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, and studied as a teenager with contemporary glass artist Ludwig Schaffrath—a design influence that manifests in the fluid yet ordered nature of his artwork. His paintings have been included in gallery exhibitions around the U.S., placed in numerous collections, and featured on book covers, a U.S. postage stamp, and elsewhere in the public sphere. He lives and works in Northern California.