THREE years ago Nicola Taylor left behind a career as a stockbroker in the City of London.

Prior to that her artistic talent had remained so well hidden she didn’t even know it existed.

But all that changed one day – she took the plunge left her career behind her and enrolled at art school.

She picked up a camera and began taking photographs and the rest, as they say, is history.

You can see the results for yourself as Nicola is one of the featured artists at the 10th Holmfirth Art Market on November 3-4.

But her story is one worth telling – she had a passion which she never thought was a possibility.

Nicola says: “I left my job as a stockbroker in the City almost three years ago now and tried a few other jobs for a year and then went to art school

“I’ve only been selling my work to the public for the last 18 months so it’s all happened very quickly.

“If someone had told me more than three years ago I’d be doing this I’d have laughed, I never considered myself to be a creative person and I couldn’t really draw or paint at school.”

But there was an artistic form which Nicola loved – photography.

“It was always more of a hobby and I took a course at the London College of Communication and being in that environment helped me create something different,” she added.

“There are a lot of landscape photographers and coming from North Yorkshire I can see why as it’s beautiful, but I wanted to try something a bit different, my creativity and personality came with it.”

Nicola is inspired by home life in North Yorkshire, folklore and illustrations from old children’s books.

“I really love illustrations and story-telling, at college I’d spend hours in the library looking at illustrations from the early 19th century.

“I try to take photographs which are illustrations to stories which haven’t been written.”

But they may be one day – Nicola admits she’s thinking of uniting her images with the stories behind them one day, but for now she’s forging a career as a photographer.

Events like the Holmfirth Art Market certainly help, as Nicola adds: “I attended the art market in June and was amazed to be part of it.

“It’s a great way for art lovers to view work of gallery-standard but not in a sterile environment.

“It allows us as artists to interact and talk to buyers and for them to find out what motivates and inspires us and learn more about what they’re buying.”

Nicola is one of 100 artists who feature in the two weekends. It begins at 8pm on Saturday and from 10am-4pm on Sunday. It returns the following weekend, at the same times.

The art markets are organised by Victoria Robinson, Brendan Hesmondhalgh and Emily Stubbs who chosen which artists would feature.

“Over the last five years, the Art Markets has grown in size and popularity and consequently we’ve learned a lot along the way,” says Victoria.

“But the basic principles, on which we founded this event, remain the same. It’s still our mission to provide a place where both locals and visitors to Holmfirth can discover and buy an amazing range of contemporary art, craft and design.”

Admission is £2 on the door and the artists will be selling their work.

Visit www.theartsmarket.blogspot.co.uk for more details.