The world around us and how we perceive it is made up of layers… strata of experiences, grief, happiness, boredom, awe… all our sensations whether positive or negative. I strive to capture this depth in color with an intuitive and physical painting process, adding layers, digging back into those, and adding more again. This process represents a reckoning with life’s experiences, grief, happiness, trauma, while also rebuilding with new. Facing past layers and welcoming new beginnings is what life is about.

Nicole Korbe is a self-taught artist in Denver Colorado. Her paintings reveal themselves to her in an intuitive manner and are largely inspired by sense of place. It makes sense that they are often evocative of the western landscapes where she has spent the majority of her life. Expansive views of grasslands, deserts and the mountain west are a large source of inspiration.

Nicole enjoys working in multiple media, though her mainstay is an additive and subtractive process that combines oils with cold wax medium.  She utilizes palette knives and other tools to scrape through multiple layers to create a textured and impressionistic effect. She also paints with encaustic wax and fire, a process that she continues to explore on her creative journey.

In addition to her own creative practice, Nicole also manages NKollectiv gallery in the Art District on Santa Fe in Denver where she showcases the work of local artists and also has a painting studio.