Nicolas Nadeau (b. 1988, England) is a painter based in Austin, Texas. His childhood took him all over the world, which included several teenage years in Australia.  His multicultural exposure and background gave him an early understanding of the rich diversity of experiences and ways of living that make up human existence.

Eventually, his family settled in San Antonio, TX, where he attended a fine arts high school. The observations from his travels deeply influenced his early work and formed the basis for his paintings going forward.

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Nadeau pursued his passion for art at the Rhode Island School of Design, graduating in 2010 with a degree in Illustration. His work has been selected and recognized and by The Society of Illustrators West and featured in numerous additional national publications. His paintings have been showcased in galleries across the United States, including LA, New York, and San Francisco, where he had a notable two-man show with the legendary MOMO in 2011. His pieces are also part of private collections worldwide.

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Beyond painting, Nadeau has been a musician and songwriter for nearly two decades. He has collaborated on album art and videos with various musical artists and record labels, including Rock Action and Holodeck Records. His artistic style is diverse, oscillating between figurative portraits to abstract works. He believes that all figurative work is abstract and vice versa, viewing his body of work as a cohesive vision despite its varied forms.

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Nadeau's favorite painter is John Singer Sargent, admired for his ability to blend bold, expressive marks with the conservative high-society portraiture of his time. A visionary in coupling pure sensual qualities with incisive powers of observation, fusing experimental and traditional elements that create a unique tension in Sargent's work, a quality that Nadeau deeply appreciates. While Sargent was sometimes criticized in his own day for being, on the one hand, too experimental and on the other too much a traditionalist, it is exactly this fusion of sensibilities that creates the frisson of his work.  Like Sargent, Nadeau values a pragmatic work ethic, emphasizing the importance of consistent practice over mystifying the artistic process. For him, inspiration often comes with a brush in his hand while he is actively painting.

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When working, Nadeau prefers ambient music, which helps him achieve a focused state of concentration lasting several hours. In this zone, he creates without fear or hesitation. His abstract pieces often feature sharp geometric shapes created with painter's tape, intersecting with more free-flowing, organic forms. This interplay of contrasting elements to create a harmonious whole is a source of excitement for Nadeau.