ARTIST PROFILE

RIKKI

DAY

“Usually I just have a starting point and I let my hand go where it wants to.”

As a youngster, Rikki Day could often be found at the beach watching her mum surf. “She was a professional longboarder. I often feel that all those hours of sitting on the shore, drawing lines in the sand with sticks, has contributed to my style of art.”

“I think every artist’s journey begins in childhood,” Rikki muses. Her early life, she says, was full of creative energy. “My mother’s girlfriend was an artist, and the entryway in our home was set up as a painting nook for her. It was pretty magical coming home from school every day and walking straight into such a creative space.”

But it wasn’t until she was a mother herself that Rikki turned to art as an outlet and subsequently made a career out of it.

She describes leaving her 10-month-old son at home and taking her first solo walk since his birth. “I sat on the beach and asked myself, ‘What do you want that’s just for you?’ My answer was ‘To paint’.” Energised by the realisation, she immediately went Drawing on her seaside upbringing, Rikki Day’s “woman-centric” art is driven by rituals of self-care and continual creative exploration.

WORDS CASEY HUTTON PHOTOGRAPHY TANIKA BLAIR

home and set up a space in her garage, with her husband’s help.

From there, Rikki’s artistic life flourished. With an online following of thousands, she currently sells original paintings, limited-edition prints and ceramics from her website, as well as working on commissions.

The fluidity of her paintings echoes her meditative and intuitive creative process. Recalling her childhood drawings in the sand, Rikki says, “usually I just have a starting point and I let my hand go where it wants to”.