Travel colors Plymouth Harbor resident's paintings

From the way the white Cycladic homes line the blue of the Aegean Sea in Pauline Nichols’ “Santorini” painting, it’s clear she paid attention to her surroundings. From Greece and Italy to Colorado and New York, Nichols has spent a lot of time traveling. She draws from these adventures as inspiration for her oil and watercolor paintings.

During her travels, Nichols would take a photo or sketch a scene so she could remember it exactly as it was when she went to paint.

“You just see something, and it strikes you that you’d like to retain that,” she said. 

Through the end of October, various paintings by Nichols,  including “Santorini,” will be on display in the Wellness Center Art Corridor of Plymouth Harbor. The paintings are also on sale for the benefit of the Plymouth Harbor Foundation. 

Nichols’ paintings mostly feature scenes from her travels. What you won’t see are paintings of Nichols’ everyday life. She has painted her daughter just once and has never painted her West Highland terrier, Homer, or Sarasota, though she loves the city.

Nichols started painting after aimlessly sketching and doodling when she was younger. 

She worked toward a studio art degree at the University of Arizona but never finished, although the lessons she learned there stayed with her for life.

For example, one professor told Nichols and her classmates that they would be lucky if they were “there when it happens,” a message that was hazy to many students. But Nichols knew exactly what he meant.

“...because all of a sudden the painting comes together, and you think, ‘Oh gosh, that’s it. That’s what I wanted. It’s done,’” Nichols said.

Both Nichols and her daughter, Angela Stowe, learned to paint on their own. But Nichols had more of an impact on her daughter than she thought. 

Stowe remembers her mother painting when she was younger and says in a way, she did teach her the art.

“She’s my mother,” Stowe said. “She taught me everything...She was great at painting, a fabulous cook. She did a lot of things very well, so she did pass those along.”

Nichols previously lived in Colorado and Arizona before moving to Plymouth Harbor in 2010.

While she lived in Tuscon, Ariz., she was featured in a few galleries, including the Desert Artisans Gallery, and had a studio in her home.

Today, she paints in the art room of Plymouth Harbor. Her desk and workspace are organized. Brushes sit in a small glass vase, paint sits in a small, mint-colored tub, and behind her chair rests an unfinished painting of Italian archways on an easel. She’s working on finishing the painting and then wants to work on an abstract piece. 

For her, completing a painting is an exhilarating feeling — and she isn’t slowing down any time soon.