Navan artist selected by norman reedus

Navan artist Nicole Bartley has had a portrait piece published in a new book, ‘Thanks for all the Niceness’ by actor Norman Reedus, best known for ‘The Walking Dead’ TV series. This book is a collaboration of fan art compiled by the actor himself, the proceeds of which are going to the The Bachmann Strauss Dystonia and Parkinson Foundations.
Nicole is a self taught portrait artist currently living in Galway city. Having studied art from a young age in school she continued her studies and has completed art courses held in both National College of Art and Design (NCAD) Dublin and Ballyfermot College of Further Education, Dublin. She graduated from Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT) in 2010 with a BA in Fine Art, specialising in painting.
Since finishing college, Nicole enjoys painting and drawing, and focuses mostly on very detailed pieces such as portraits of people and animals. She loves bright, bold, coloured pieces and works mainly in graphite pencil, coloured pencils, water colours and acrylic paint. She is inspired greatly by portrait photography, graphic design and tattoo art of all kinds, such as Japanese art and traditional tattoo art.
Nicole has recently exhibited her portrait work at the second annual Kfest in summer 2014. This festival of art and music was held in Killorglin, Co Kerry. She has also exhibited more of her portrait work at the pop up gallery held at the second annual Galway Tattoo Show in early September 2014.
Nicole is heavily involved in charity work and has donated many art pieces to different charities in order to raise funds for their causes. She has auctioned off a piece of her work this summer to raise funds for the Last Hope Charity in Meath along with donating art work to Down Syndrome Ireland for auction. During November 2014, Nicole worked on a large fibreglass pig sculpture, both designing and painting it for the Jack and Jill foundation, which will be on display in early 2015 as part of the ‘Pigs on Parade’ initiative and auctioned off for the charity in March 2015.
Nicole says she heard about the book via Norman Reedus’s social media sites last year in February.
“Once I emailed my portrait to him, by May I received the news that my portrait would be in the book. There are 100 pieces of fanart work in the book, all chosen by Norman himself out of over 4,000 entries. As a thank you to the fans in the book he personally signed a copy for each of us. I received mine in December,” she says.