Meet Nicolle
I enjoy painting moody botanicals, jungle leaves, natives, pods, blooms and berries.
I have always loved the vibrational energy of plants.
My childhood was spent playing in large steamy glasshouses full of ferns, palms, and house plants.
I still remember the deliciously earthy smell and hushed feeling of those spaces, where delicate maiden
hair ferns and vibrant green mosses would naturalise wherever they could find the light.
Later, I worked in plant nurseries in NZ and among the humid tropical foliage of coastal Australian garden centres.
Some of the first big words I learned as a child were the latin and botanical names of the shrubs growing outside
my bedroom window. My attention was always directed toward nature. My mother worked in a garden centre,
my uncle owned acres of greenhouses containing new seedlings, my grandmother Elsie owned a florist shop
and my great grandmother Mary Priscilla grew blooms and vegetables to share from her roadside stall
during the war and the great depression.
Nature's layers of green energise me. I feel every cell in my body come alive when I am in a woodland,
a lush green glade, a rainforest or a tropical garden.
Living and creating in Matakana, New Zealand, I began painting from a desire to fill my home with original works of art.
I value peace and quiet and I see visual art as a way to communicate without words and noise.
We are surrounded by the mass-produced, the manufactured, the disposables, the digitally enhanced, the AI generated, the devices and the instantaneous. Anything original, one of kind, or handmade with care holds the energy of the maker.
Each painting has a story, from concept to completion. The excitement of the initial sketch, the concentration,
the layers, the long solitary hours in the studio, and the immense patience each piece demands
gives painting an intrinsic value to me.
My signature style is a combination of realism and stylism - with exaggerated simplicity.
I deliberately avoid the fine detail realism requires, placing more emphasis on shape, form, and the play of light.
One of the most important elements I’m looking for is contrast. Where there is contrast - there is drama and energy.
I reside in a rural setting where I feel fortunate to work from my garden studio.
The studio has become a special place to focus on my love of painting and plants.
It doubles as a gallery for new works, and prints, and is an altogether peaceful and personal space.
