Nicole van Dijk spent her formative years growing up in outer eastern Melbourne at the base of the Dandenong ranges. She is currently living and working in Melbourne.
She has completed a Bachelor of Design with Honours and a Master of Education (Melbourne University). Her first career was in design as this seemed the best way to earn a living from being creative. The Masters in Education provided opportunities to teach, which Nicole still does today, often as a Clinical Specialist at The University of Melbourne.
van Dijk has exhibited at Rubicon Ari, Forty Five Downstairs and was a finalist in the 2019 Glover Landscape Prize. van Dijk has created large public artworks (murals) for the city of Booroondara and held Artist in Residence positions at Strathcona Baptist School for consecutive years.
van Dijk’s art practice focuses on landscape as a starting point for abstract works. She works primarily in oils and enjoys the immersive qualities of paint and it’s endless possibilities in mark-making. Through her painting, she attempts to capture the energy of the land, the strange balances and shapes, and the surprise of colour relationships.
Some artworks use local realistic colour, other artworks search to convey specific emotions or stories of the painting. She says, 'I let the marks sit next to each other. I don’t blend and there is no undo button. I’m most alive when I’m painting - my whole nerve endings are open when I’m taking in the details of nature.'