Nikki Gardner

About the Create! Magazine 10th Anniversary Book: Create! Magazine is honored to celebrate a decade of contemporary art by publishing a look back at previously selected artists: their achievements, career growth, and more since being published. Stay tuned for the book launch in fall 2026, and join our newsletter to stay up to date.

Nikki Gardner, featured in both Create! Magazine and the Create! Magazine10th Anniversary Book, is an award-winning oil painter based in Snohomish, WA. She earned her BA in Painting from WWU in 1996 and graduated with honors from the Art Institute of Seattle in desktop publishing in 1998. Gardner remains active in her local art community, runs a youth art school, co-founded a local arts organization, and maintains an active studio practice, exhibiting regularly.

Her current series explores color, luminosity, life and death, fragility and strength, heaviness and hope through intentionally arranged flowers and animal skulls.

She draws inspiration from the Dutch Masters and their dramatic light and symbolism, as well as her background in figurative art. The animal skulls she paints echo the human form, with their glow and luminosity reminiscent of the beauty of skin. Her training in graphic design and photography informs her compositions, emphasizing balance, shadow, and light within her overall design.

Gardner has exhibited at Schack Art Center, Catalyst Fine Art Gallery, Edmonds Art Festival Juried Gallery, Smith & Vallee Gallery, Red Sky Gallery, and more. She has been featured in Bold Journey, Women United Art Magazine, Create! Magazine, True Northwest Magazine, The Everett Herald, and other regional publications.

In 2020, Gardner was a paid invitational Artist in Residence at Schack Art Center. She has been juried into numerous competitions, received awards, and participated in several invitational shows.


nikkigardnerfineart.com