Bio

Nicole Groot is an award-winning artist based in Pikeville, TN. She began her career as an artist in high school, illustrating children's books for a small company in Franklin, TN. That early opportunity inspired Nicole to pursue a degree in Fine Art. Nicole earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Tennessee Tech University in 2019, where she studied painting under Perry Johnson. The program at Tennessee Tech allowed Nicole to diversify her skills; she found excitement in almost every new medium she tried. Fully immersed in art, Nicole supported her academic career by illustrating and painting public murals in Sparta, TN. Nicole discovered her passion for teaching and education when she worked as a drawing tutor, workshop assistant, and gallery assistant for the Joan Derryberry Art Gallery. Nicole's reflective paintings explore the simultaneous weakness and resilience of the human spirit. She represents these themes with abstract figures, animals, or images of Tennessee's woodlands, where she finds most of her inspiration: "I find so many parables for life in the woods. The green regrowth on an old stump encourages me to keep fighting through hard times. The birds' songs remind me to be spontaneous and thankful. The rushing river reminds me of how small and insignificant I am, and I find that simply exhilarating. The golden sunlight that catches the tippy tops of the winter trees gives me an inexplicable feeling of hope. To paint these things that I love is to understand them more deeply."