Nándor Mikola (born Nándor Josef Mikolajcsik, ; 27 November 1911 – 3 May 2006) was a
watercolor
Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to t ...
painter from
Vaasa, Finland
Vaasa (; sv, Vasa, , Sweden ), in the years 1855–1917 as Nikolainkaupunki ( sv, Nikolajstad; literally meaning "city of Nicholas), , but born in
Budapest, Hungary
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population of ...
.
Following in the footsteps of his father
Ignác Mikolajcik, Mikola started studying
lithography
Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...
at the
Budapest University for Art and Design in 1928. At the same time he studied painting at the
Budapest Free Art Academy
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population of ...
under the guidance of . He graduated as a lithographer in 1932 and participated for the first time in a public exhibition at the
Obuda district culture house in Budapest, where he displayed his watercolour paintings. That year he worked as a lithographer in Budapest but continued studies at
Graphic Institute of Vienna, Austria, the same year. In 1935 Mikola arrived in
Helsinki, Finland
Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the capital, primate, and most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of Uusimaa in southern Finland, and has a population of . The city' ...
to help his
Hungarian artist friend Josef Miklos to decorate a restaurant called "Hungaria". He started studying graphics at the Art Industrial Central-school in Helsinki under the guidance of , and in 1938 the firm
Lassila & Tikanoja in Vaasa employed him as a draughtsman of commercials (he later became the company's director of PR).
Mikola, who rather painted with his heart than his mind, found most of his inspiration in the colors and forms of nature, in the rhythm of the landscape and in light and shade. His works can be seen as representations of personal experiences. The mood is always in focus.
20th-century Finnish painters
21st-century Finnish painters
Artists from Budapest
Hungarian emigrants to Finland
1911 births
2006 deaths
20th-century Hungarian painters
20th-century lithographers
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