Nico P L Vosloo's Page

2003 Artists For A Better World International
"SETTING A GOOD ARTISTIC EXAMPLE" Awardee

Nicolas Vosloo

"For setting a good example as an artist towards the creation of a better world and helping other artists direct their aesthetic inspiration towards improving our world, thereby creating a better future for us all."

Nico Vosloo: Born and bred in Chintsa, near East London, South Africa, Nico Vosloo’s earliest memories are associated with the African bush. As a child, he would ride into the veldt and jungle on his father’s shoulders. Many of his earliest friends were of the Xhosa people. It was Ta-Jan-Ogria, a Xhosa witchdoctor who gave him his earliest lessons in art, showing him how to sculpt clay oxen and paint them with ash, fat and berry juice.

Nicos talents were refined through studies at the Johannesburg College of Art, South Africa.

After graduating from Art College in the Transvaal, he was offered a lecturing post at his alma mater. For six years he lectured and spent all his vacations roaming the beautiful South African countryside. Capturing in paint all aspects of life.

In 1982 Nico sailed, as the South African Ambassador of Art, from Cape Town to the U.S. on a SAF Marine container ship sponsored by SAF marine-

with a cabin full of over 30 Wildlife and Ethnic canvases and a series of 40 paintings depicting the lifestyles and beliefs of the Xhosa people. While exhibiting in New York he was appointed as the first South African member of the New York Society of Animal Artists, also won their award of excellence and Artist of the Year by Safari Club International.

Nico has established a luxurious, bold and innovative quality in his works of art. An awed admirer said, ”It is a nearly mystical experience as one becomes immersed in an illusionary encounter with Nico’s art. The luminous contrasting colors, bold brush strokes and energetic lines and shapes take one into a new level of awareness.”

Nico’s paintings show that technique should not overpower the most essential aspect in any art, namely communication. The years of inspired creation and dedication have earned for Nico Vosloo a reputation in the world of art as a ‘Master of Motion and Life’.

"Over the years I have made many friends world-wide, with people who enjoy, appreciate and understand my art. I am very interested in communicating and instilling a certain quality of aesthectics, feelings and emotions in their lives.

The spiritual healing power and life force emanating from art created with clear inspired energy is awesome. My childhood memories, which include very colorful aspects of rural African tribal life, dusty deserts and moist forests filled with wonderous wildlife evoke and inspire my art to high levels of communication." Nico said.

Other awards and acknowledgements include the 1983 Cover Artist of the Year by the magazine Safari International (Tucson, AZ. USA); and an award for several outstanding contributions of Aesthetics awareness activities and art for visually handicapped. This was awarded by, ‘Artists For a Better World’ – Celebrity Center International (Hollywood, CA. USA.) Nico is also featured in Everard Read – The ‘Dictionary of South African Painters and Sculptors’.

Nico has exhibited in such prestigious galleries throughout the world including South African galleries as Everard Read Gallery, BMW Gallery, Shell Gallery and the Gallery International. He also maintained his own privately owned gallery and working studio where all comers could see his completed works and if lucky enough, see him in the middle of a new masterpiece. His works have also been exhibited in Germany, England and Australia. Nico’s USA exhibits include the ‘My Way’ Gallery in Hollywood, California, the Washburn University Campus, the Safari Club International in Tucson, Arizona, and many other galleries in Florida, California, New York, Kansas and Texas.

The numerous and grand adventures Nico has had throughout his life would fill numerous volumes of books yet he is as creative, energetic and enthusiastic today as he ever was. It is his unsaitable appetite for life that constantly inispires him to ever greater levels of artistic creation.

Nico has dedicated himself to a life as a fine artist, creating in most all mediums and genres. His brilliant landscapes, portraits, abstracts, sculptures, animal art, figurative and illustration have made him one of the most prolific contemporary arists of our time.