Nick Bode was born in 1950 in Rhinelander, Wisconsin and in 1960 moved with his family to Moscow, Idaho. He has lived there ever since. He began painting watercolor while in high school and studied art at the University of Idaho. He worked in construction and farming for a number of years before joining his family's restaurant and beverage business from 1979 to 1998, at which point he returned to construction. He retired in 2002 and returned to watercolor in 2003. 

His work appears often at various venues around North Idaho and Eastern Washington. He also enters work in various juried shows. His first solo show, the Farmer’s Market series, was at the Third Street Gallery in Moscow, Idaho and consisted of some forty-five works, a number of which now hang in private collections. He is also a member of the Idaho Watercolor Society.