The Creations of M. Nicole van Dam

The artwork and poetry you find on this site are by the international Impressionist artist, author and poet M. Nicole van Dam®.

I work in many media, such as oils, acrylics, water color, pastels, and pen and ink, often mixing my own pigments to achieve intense color palettes. I choose my media to best suit the affect I am trying to achieve. Whatever the medium, I hope that my work makes you smile. My primary inspiration is nature’s beauty and diversity.

I am a California native, born of Dutch parents, and I was educated on the East Coast. I live by California’s Central Coast with my much-loved husband and my mischievous pets – a Leonberger dog, a rescue Chihuahua dog mix, and two Bourke’s Parrot birds.

Earlier Influences: My parents are a tremendously positive influence in my life, and I attribute much of my success and love of the arts to them, as well as to my ever-patient husband. My parents shared their strong work ethic and honest professionalism, in addition to their love of the arts. Through my parents, I was exposed from an early age to beautiful European art at a wide array of museums, and I was particularly influenced by the amazing Dutch Kröller-Müller Museum. While at the Kröller-Müller Museum, I clearly remember seeing Vincent Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers,” Pablo Picasso’s “Nude Descending a Staircase,” and other great works, all in the Kröller-Müller Museum’s then uncrowded setting that encouraged close engagement with the art. While my parents’ preference is the Dutch Masters, my preference became the great Impressionists – particularly Claude Monet and Vincent Van Gogh with their lively colors and movement. I also enjoy the compositional freedom of early Modernist Marc Chagall, the beautiful lighting techniques of Johannes Vermeer, the sfumato techniques of Leonardo da Vinci, the cheery interplay of simplicity and complexity of Andrea della Robbia, and the style of Louis Comfort Tiffany. When you look at the majority of my compositions (for example “Passion Flower” and “Chef at the Farmer’s Market”), you can see these influences at play.

Career Overview: My art has been exhibited publicly many times at various venues, and has been on exhibit at a gallery/business/public venue continuously for more than a decade. Since approximately 2008, my artwork has been on display at Santa Barbara, California City Hall. Similarly, commencing public exhibition in February 2011, Community Memorial Hospital acquired a large collection of my work, following a display of my artwork and poetry for the hospital in 2010. One of my 2006 solo exhibitions was recorded by the Montecito, California History Committee, and I have been named an artist to watch by the “Montecito Journal” and by several online periodicals. A retrospective of my work has also been published, and you can see more of my work at my online Portfolio). I am very grateful to all the people and businesses who have so kindly supported my work along the way.

In addition to fine art exhibitions, I am also an internationally licensed artist and author. As an international artist, my work is licensed by international manufacturers for many products, such as glass plates, footwear, scarves, eyeglasses, clothing, handbags, tile wall murals, collectibles, etc., so as a result people around the world have purchased my work. I have been written up in collector newsletters, including international newsletters that published my poetry as well as my other creations.

 

Here is an example of the press given these fabulous boots at the MovieGuide Awards, and what a thrill to be referred to as a “modern day Monet.”

Following is an example of how a manufacturer chose to blend my poetry together with my art, and the poem also is an example of how I am inspired by nature’s wonders:

Hummingbird
Zipping by
Colorful imp prancing in the sky
Playing with the wind
Magically you hover near
and I hear
that 70 beats per second sings
A song through your powerful wings

Every blossom catches your eye
With your long bill you drink nectar as you fly
Playing cupid in life’s pollination scheme
Dancing your merry dance to Nature’s theme.

I also author books which combine my art with my poetry, humor and philosophy, and current gallery exhibitions often include recitations of my poetry/philosophy combined with my art, in large part taken from my book “Tempo – The Rhythm and Rhyme of the Artist.”

One of my great joys is to write and and illustrate children’s books. These children’s books include “Inca Dink, The Great Houndini” ™ (licensed for the iPhone/iPad and narrated by BBC personality Dominic Byrne) and “Rosie and Emma Plant a Seed“™ and “This Little Puppy.”™

More recently, I have very much enjoyed teaming up with other talented creatives and writing music lyrics and doing a bit of voice over narration. My first musical collaboration was because of the kindness and talent of Robin Frost, an international, award winning composer. Robin elected to put my poetry to music – working side-by-side with Robin in his amazing studio are some of my happiest memories. I owe quite a bit of my musical courage to him! Following is an example of one of our first bits of creative fun together. Robin Frost used my lyrics “House Cleaning Rag” to write the following ragtime song (and you can hear I won’t win any awards for my singing)!

I have been so lucky to enjoy a few musical collaborations with brilliant musician Dr. Kenneth Kafka – here is an example of the wonderful music Dr. Kafka wrote for my “Moonlight” lyrics:

Another wonderful memory was being a professional narrator (along with Dominic Byrne, a well-known BBC personality and narrator) for my children’s book, “Inca Dink, the Great Houndini.” I even took a photo of my Leonberger dog Inca with me to the recording studio, for inspiration. If you search for Inca Dink, Great Houndini in the Apple app store you will find it, or you can find it through this link: Inca Dink, The Great Houndini

 

 

Here is an excerpt of my narration – but I need to say that BBC personality Dominic Byrne also narrated Inca Dink, The Great Houndini for this app, and Dominic Byrne’s narration is brilliant:

I also have enjoyed being part of the team behind the Quest Master™ achievement app – you will see my artwork and writing as part of the inspirations in this fun and useful app, and I am the designer of the logo and icons.  As shown below, we actually used the color scheme of my Lake of Dreams artwork to create the user interface, logo, icons and website color scheme for the Quest Master app!

Logo and icons:

Lake of Dreams: 

You will find this useful Quest Master achievement app in the Apple App Store – learn more at this link:

I also wrote the Quest Master “Achieve Your Goals!” book and my Sailing artwork is on its cover.

Please contact me if you are interested in licensing my artwork for your products or if you are interested in commissioning an artwork!  I also love to receive your feedback and photos!  Thank you for supporting my work.