Nicole Ours
Nicole Ours’ colorful oil paintings are energetic yet peaceful explorations of life’s beauty. Rich surface pleasures lure attention to the interior depths of each subject. You are invited to linger and experience each subject’s unique vitality whether a landscape, still life, or portrait. Some paintings push to be painted, calling to Nicole, quickly taking over after the first few strokes. Others pull her in more slowly, allowing for meditation, experiments, evolution. No matter the pace of creation, Nicole feels it to be a co-creation. Brush meets canvas and at some point, the painting itself finds its voice. From then until completion, Nicole’s role is to listen with her full spirit, using brush and oils until the ultimate emergence of each painting. To prepare, Nicole steeps herself by informing her intuition. Exposure to oil painting while a pre-school child ingrained her love of this medium. Lessons in Japanese brush painting with Chiura Obata as a girl built trust and flow. The gentle tolerance of her figurative fixation by brilliant abstract painter Ralph DuCasse while at Mills College stimulated Nicole’s progress as an artist. Respect, curiosity and thirst for learning always animate Nicole. Values of empathy, authenticity, and effective action characterize her both as a long-time special educator and as an artist.
