Painter, printmaker and teacher, born in Surrey. He studied at West Surrey College of Art and Design, at Farnham, in 1975–7, at the North-East London Polytechnic, 1977–80, and Slade School of Fine Art, 1981–3. In the latter year he won a Slade Prize and a Boise Travelling Scholarship to Italy. Bicknell won a prize in the 1987 John Moores Exhibition, Liverpool, the same year that he had his first solo show in London at Carlile Gallery, after an earlier one at Eton College. Also showed solo at Pomeroy Purdy Gallery in 1990, and mixed exhibitions included The Last Wapping Show, 1985; Camden Annual, 1986; and XXV Joan Miró Drawing Prize Competition, Barcelona, 1986. In 1989–90 Bicknell was Henry Moore Printmaking Fellow at Leeds Polytechnic, where he went on to teach part-time.