NICHOLAS J. BOTT was born in the Netherlands in 1941. At an early age he was inspired by the works of the Dutch Masters. He settled in Canada in the late 1950s and fell in love with the landscape in and around Smithers, British Columbia where he was then residing. He spends many days on remote mountain slopes, some locations accessible only by helicopter.

The Netherlands has produced many artists of renown and Bott is no exception. He studied art at the University of British Columbia and holds a diploma from the Chicago School of Art. Inspired by the loose style of Vincent Van Gogh and the Canadian Group of Seven, blending his traditional European values with contemporary developments of the new world, his paintings have evolved continuously to the impressionistic style of his current work. The simplified shapes in the landscapes are filled with vibrant colour. The brushwork literally radiates with energy of the forces of nature.

"Bott's works reveal not only an ever-growing confidence with the medium, but a growing sense of lyricism and visual poetry in the interpretation of his various subjects. His paintings show spontaneity and sureness of hand commensurate with his ability to distill and transform landscape and rural motifs into refined aesthetic visualizations." (Magazin Art, Fall 1999)
 

photo: Nicholas Bott at Consolation Lake in the Rocky Mountains