Hi

Thanks for taking the time to find out more about me.
So here goes…

My name is Nicolette and I live in the beautiful town of Kommetjie, Cape Town, with my husband and two hounds.
This place has been to me a resting place and an impartation of beauty that I never imagined possible.

I have two beautiful daughters who make me so proud to be a mom.

I hold a degree in Theology from the University of North Carolina.

Although studying BA.BK. (Fine Art and then Information Design) at the University of Pretoria for two years, (not finishing my degree… life happened), I never pursued painting until my middle child, Mila, was born in 2000.

On Christmas Eve, 2008, we lost our five-year old son, Benjamin. For a year I couldn’t paint anything and then slowly God started helping me through this journey of grief, and painting and artmaking became a way of expressing this journey of healing.

I find my inspiration in trying to create an emotion or feeling regarding the mystical, unexplained, and Divine being present in trauma, tragedy, hope, resilience and the mundane or simple.

I believe that art should, above all else, evoke emotion. Creating art for me is a deeply spiritual experience that I cannot get away from. I want a sense of wonder and the mystical to be expressed in my work while still connected to the reality, and sometimes harshness and tragedy, of everyday life. I tend to constantly return to the childlike and simple in my work and I’m probably not always “correct” in my approach but I have learned to go with what makes me happy. I have a love for words that also often finds it’s way into my work.

In my printmaking practice, I enjoy working with drypoint engraving, chinne colle, monoprints, collagraphs and collage. I am also a painter and illustrator and I love experimenting with combining different media and techniques in my art making.

Since moving to Kommetjie, my environment and the beauty around me, has been a wonderful new “muse” to me and has slowly crept into my work.

I have certain symbols that mean something to me, but I prefer that the viewer listen for their own story and see their own message in my work.
That is what makes me happy, when I see the emotion on someone’s face as a piece of art that I made speaks to them personally.

My recent body of work relies heavily on the inspiration I find in my immediate surrounds.
Especially after this year of not having the freedom of experiencing Nature, I am trying to embrace the privilege of artistic expression by taking all these elements from my natural environment, elevating them to a “mystical landscape” where positive nostalgia (a sentimental longing or wistful affection for a period in the past), healing, joy and freedom is available. I hope the viewer is left with a sense of belonging, in a world where especially during the pandemic, loneliness is so prevalent.

In this tapestry called Life, I think that we can always grow and learn from one another.

My way of telling my story happens through my art and my story is always about Hope.