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"Davis Peak"
Nicolas Bott, "Davis Peak."
2 of 4
"Buntzen Lake"
Nicolas Bott, "Buntzen Lake."
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"Davis Peak"
Nicolas Bott, "Davis Peak."
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"East of Jasper"
Nicolas Bott, "East of Jasper."
NICOLAS BOTT
Born: 1941, Blokker (NL)
Studied: Emily Carr School of Art, Chicago School of Art
Lives/Works: Vancouver, BC
Price Range: $1,500 - $18,000
Diana Paul opened her eponymous Diana Paul Gallery in Calgary in 1988 and daughter, Nina Paul Rogers has held the reins since 2004. Bold and energetic painterly landscapes have long been a hallmark of gallery artists and Nina notes they continue to be popular, but with a trend to much larger, often wall-size, pieces.
She recommends the work of Nicolas Bott as essential to a contemporary art collection. He has been represented by her gallery for 20 years and remarkably, his work rarely comes into the secondary market. Bott came to Canada at 17, bringing his Dutch heritage and the influence of van Gogh with him, still young enough to absorb the scenic beauty of the rugged British Columbia landscape and open to the influence of BC artist Keith C. Smith. Calgary art critic Jacek Malec has drawn comparisons between Bott and the master Bauhaus artist Paul Klee who exhorted his students to refrain from merely looking at nature but rather to look through nature… to simplify, stylize and suggest rather than explain. The simplified shapes in Bott’s landscapes are filled with vibrant colour and the brushwork radiates the energy of the forces of nature. His wide-ranging subjects include many remote locations.
Paul Rogers tells of a corporate newcomer to Calgary who stopped into the gallery a few years ago looking to begin a collection. He chose a Bott piece and now has 19. Another client has 42.