Nola Ahola

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Born in the midst of the Great Depression, artist Nola Ahola inherited a spirit of optimism; that even in the most difficult times there are possibilities—if one would
persist. Ahola's mother was a school teacher, the family breadwinner, an independent thinker in a small conservative Washington State town. There were no art classes at the rural school where the artist attended.

In the 1970's Ahola developed a series of figure drawing and painting workshops with a feminist context. Her reputation as an inspiring teacher grew with her many classes sponsored by the UW Continuing Education Program. She also participated In art programs offered by the city, county and state. Most notable was her Artist in Residency at Stevens Elementary School in Seattle where she taught art to students and teachers for fourteen months.

It was during this time that the artist developed her unique and popular Figure In Watercolor workshops in King and San Juan counties. In this period she produced over a hundred large scale brush drawings of dancers, a collection of which was showcased by Nordstrom Inc.





The artist moved to Lopez Island in 1992, where she continued to exhibit. There she created and wrote a biweekly arts column, ...

Nola Ahola's first art classes were taught by Carl Hall at Willamette University. As she continued her art education at the University of Washington in the 1950's, she was still caught in the fog of pervasive sexism of that time. Her confidence and enlightenment through feminism came slowly. As an undergraduate she began
to focus on the figure. After earning her MFA she began teaching art, modeling her instruction style on the teaching of M C Richards.

The artist's first solo exhibition was held at the Otto Seligman Gallery (1967), followed by shows at Francine Seders Gallery and the University Unitarian Gallery. She exhibited at the Linda Farris Gallery for a decade, and independently since 1980.

In 2016 Nola Ahola is, at seventy nine years old, a fully active artist, having shown solo at Johnston Architects (2014), as well as staging an exhibit in April (2015) at the Ida Culver House.