Nic Aagaard was born in Te Whanganui-a-Tara and is an ethicist, bureaucrat, and oil painter. Nic’s work is influenced by themes of mental health, with portraits often communicating complex, mixed emotions, and a tragic, sometimes haunting, beauty. Nic alternates between portraits, pure abstract work and abstract landscapes of the countryside or the city. Frequently playing with heavy textured oil, Nic’s art often employs impasto techniques, and increasingly uses multiple mediums to achieve unique layered works. Nic’s work combines semi realism and abstraction to draw in the viewer. Use of bold colour, and large canvas sizes, adds to the gravatas of his captivating works. In his own words, painting saved his life.