Our Featured Artist of the Month series offers a window into the diverse practices within Digswell Arts. This month, we speak with Nade Simmons, whose work explores ideas through a distinctive and considered approach. From her creative process to the influences shaping her work, Nade gives us an insight into her practice and her experience as part of the Digswell Arts community.

Q: How would you describe your current practice (e.g., materials, techniques, themes, key questions, approach)? 

N: I’m drawn to natural forms, particularly plants and insects, through observation, memory, and mark-making. I try to explore commonalities between different species of fIora & fauna, how and why they evolved that way and the ruthlessness of life that can be held within beauty. I build layers, often reworking surfaces through scratching, cutting, staining, and drawing back into them. I’m increasingly interested in making work that meets the viewer halfway—a point of communication between the artist, the natural world, and the viewer. The focus is on how something feels rather than how it looks, exploring what it evokes in the viewer and how much is needed for a piece to feel alive.

My practice is rooted in curiosity, play, and process. I work across mixed media—acrylic, ink, charcoal, collage, and found or unconventional materials—choosing them as much for how they behave as how they look.

Much of my recent work happens in handmade sketchbooks, which are themselves part of the artwork. I use a variety of papers—vintage, found and handmade—to push back at my mark-making, creating a back-and-forth narrative within each page. These spaces allow me to test ideas, repeat forms and pattern, and explore without pressure.

Q: What are you working on at the moment (forthcoming exhibitions, events, workshops, etc)?

N: I am currently preparing for our Open Studios at The Forge in June as well as the Herts Visual Arts Open in September. I’m also at the midway point of a patreon project titled ‘Root 52’ – a weekly practice where I share the process of studying the wild plants and insects in North Hertfordshire over a year of changing seasons. Currently I am writing a course on creating an A-Z Wild Flower Sketchbook.

Q: What are your plans for the coming year?

N: This year I have been lucky enough to have several GCSE students study my work for their textiles exams, so I’m planning on running my Coral Reef Abstract Embroidery course again in the summer as well as filming to create an online version to reach a wider audience.

I have planned a study trip to Pompeii and Herculanium in June to draw first hand on the historical sites and bring back ideas to further develop my work. I’ll explore how history, place, and surface can be translated through my materials and process. Overall, the year is about giving work space to deepen before returning to exhibitions with a more considered body of work.

Q: What is the question that you get asked most about your work?

N: I am most often asked how I am able to create such looseness in my work and mark making.

It comes from a daily practice of layering, repeating marks, and being willing to make bad work. My sketchbooks and handmade books are central to this—they’re spaces to experiment and follow instinct. Over time, this builds confidence, so pieces feel relaxed and alive even when there’s a lot going on underneath.

Q: What or who inspired you to be an artist and why?

N: I’m inspired by small details, overlooked forms, and curiosity itself. A turning point in my work came from reading Understorey by Anna Chapman Parker, which shifted my focus from landscapes to intimate studies of plants and insects.

Poets like Charles Bukowski and Darby Hudson inspire me with their directness and insight into human nature and I am drawn to the parallels between the natural world and human behaviours. and I’m also drawn to traces of local graffiti—both the marks scratched into trees or painted over in parks as well as the idea of language across groups—which reveal time, place, and human presence in subtle ways.

Q: Which artists do you most admire and why?

N: I admire artists who let the act of making guide the work. Patrick Heron and Cy Twombly for their colour, rhythm, and gesture, and contemporary artists like Jason Craighead and Lewis Rossignol for their immediate, process-led approaches.

What I admire most is how their work carries evidence of decisions, adjustments, and gestures, leaving the viewer aware of the history behind each mark.

Q: How has your relationship with Digswell Arts strengthened your practice as an artist?

N: My relationship with Digswell Arts has developed in an unusual way. I began my fellowship over two years ago at the Fenners Studios, where the space allowed me to explore large canvases and the landscape through mixed media.

After a sabbatical, I returned this year to The Forge, and my practice has shifted quite significantly. I’m now working largely on paper, focusing on collage, watercolour, and sketchbook-based explorations. The studios have given me the freedom to experiment and follow ideas wherever they lead.

Being part of a wider group of artists has also been important. There’s a sense of shared practice and ongoing conversation, even in quiet ways, which helps to keep the work moving and evolving. Alongside this, having the time and space within Digswell has built my confidence to take risks, change direction, and trust the process more fully.

Much of my work is embedded in the land itself—observing plants, insects, and local environments, and responding to their textures and rhythms through mark-making. This environment has strengthened my connection to place and allowed the work to become more attentive, layered, and grounded.

Connect with Nade: 

You can find my blog and Root 52 Project at http://www.patreon.com/whatnademade and my gallery of works at https://whatnademade.wixsite.com/website
I am also on instagram @what_nade_made