Born and raised in western Michigan, Nancy fell in love with The Bahamas on her first trip to Nassau over twenty years ago. Since then, she has been inspired by the sea, the architecture, and the Family Islands of The Bahamas.
Nancy has been working in watercolor since she was a teenager. Although not formally trained, she has taken workshops from nationally acclaimed artists like Frank Webb, Charles Read, and Diane Faxon; and has studied at the Art Students League in New York. She favors seascapes, and landscapes as subjects, but also produces interiors and still life studies.
In her hometown of Greenwich, Connecticut, Nancy has received awards from local art associations and has held numerous one-man shows at local galleries. Her work is in private collections in the United States and The Bahamas, and appears in the book, Love & Responsibility, The Dawn Davies Collection, which is a comprehensive collection of Bahamian artworks.
Nancy divides her time between Nassau, where she has a home in Lyford Cay, Connecticut, where she raised her family, and her native Michigan.
The artist describes her journey as an artist and the subjects that inspire her: “As a young person, I loved to draw, and although I did not end up studying studio art formally, the time spent in art class and drawing and painting on my own was the beginning of my lifelong interest in art.
Watercolor has been my medium of choice since high school. My mother signed me up for a watercolor class with a local artist when I was fourteen, and although the results were embarrassing at best, some of the things I learned in that class have stayed with me to this day.
The college years brought me to the east coast, where I studied art history and availed myself of the museum and gallery scene in New York City. Although fascinated with the historical aspects of painting, part of me always wanted to be able to go back to my room, and take a crack at it myself. While working in New York, the opportunities presented themselves, and I enrolled in classes at the New School and the Art Students League.
It is my good fortune to have lived in and travelled to inspirational places. As a child, I was taken to boat yards with my father while he sanded and varnished his racing boat, and to this day, I am inspired by sailboats in or out of the water, and of seascapes. The Michigan coastline that I grew up with is not as dramatic as those in The Bahamas or on the East Coast, and harder to capture, but has proven a good discipline. The Michigan skies are lonely and the water is at times forbidding, but it is possesses a quiet beauty and one that speaks to me.
The Bahamas presents its own challenges for an artist. The color of the water is such that it almost looks unbelievable if you are fortunate enough to mix the right color. The skies are almost touchable, and inspiration abounds. Although not a still life painter, it is hard for me to pass a Kalik beer without wanting to capture its peculiar yellow color with the bright blue label!”
This will be Nancy’s first solo show in The Bahamas and she is pleased to be opening at Doongalik Studios which is well respected for hosting a variety of artists. Pam Burnside, Gallery owner, stated that “it is a pleasure to host this watercolour Exhibition as it shows the absolute splendour of the country’s landscapes and the amazing clarity of light that artists from all over the world have come to capture for decades.”
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