The 73-year-old Nickle has been painting en plein air  for about about 55 years, his paintbox and a few small birch panels his frequent companions when he leaves the studio. His hiking excursions over the years, from Algonquin Park to Georgian Bay and even as far north as Lake Superior, have provided the artist with a never-ending source of materials for his landscape-driven art.

A student at the Ontario College of Art in the late 40s and early 50s, where he was admitted to second year based on work done at night classes at the school.

South Branch Magnetawan River
 

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Nickle’s painterly excursions continue the grand Canadian tradition of his predecessors in the Group of Seven. There is a natural impulse to connect his work to that of the Seven—the “same subject matter, on small panels,’ he notes—but his deft textural approach to naturalistic scenes is grounded in even older approaches to landscape.

‘I cover more of the wood, and manipulate the paint more than they did,” he says. “My work follows more from earlier models.” He cites Turner, Constable and the early impressionists, with whom he shares a concern for light.