Nancy Bush Bio

NANCY M. BUSH, ARTIST

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My formal education was in liberal arts, psychology and business management. I spent several years in the business world before pursuing my long time interest in art. As a child, I was constantly drawing and was also interested in art history.

After my business career, I threw myself into studying art at a rapid pace. I attended Mission Renaissance art school in Austin , Texas -a school dedicated to the study of the “Masters”. While in Austin , I also took many classes from Laguna Gloria Art Museum School of Art.

Since then, I have taken many workshops throughout the United States . My early workshop studies were dedicated to colorful landscapes and still life, so many of my instructors were known as colorists.

Several years ago, I felt the need to change my direction after some east coast and European travel. I became very interested in a more subdued tonalist palette and started studying painters from the 19^th and 20^th centuries such as Inness, Levitan, Twachtman, Schmid and Chatham. I discovered Michael Workman and Scott Christensen several years ago and studied with them consistently.

My painting style has changed over the years from a bright color alla prima style, to now a more tonalist classical approach for which I was initially trained. This more methodical way of painting is quite stimulating and challenging to me. In addition to my plein air painting, I am in my studio five to six days each week on average about 6-8 hours a day.

My husband and I travel extensively and when we travel, most of my painting is done “en plein air”. I take a lot of photographs and use the photos along with my field studies as reference guides to paint my large paintings in the studio.

My subject matter comes from all over the Unites States and Europe . I strive for my paintings to have a universal appeal and not just a particular region. I feel that my work is about human emotions in time and space represented by light, darkness, warmth, cool, wet, dry, etc. These elements brought together should evoke a very human response of how one feels upon viewing the painting. If they connect that way, then I feel my work is validated.

PROFILE OF THE ARTIST

Nancy Bush is a native Texan, born in Austin and currently resides in Fredericksburg , Texas.

Her pursuit of art has taken her to many beautiful places in the world to study and paint a wide variety of subject matter. “Landscape is my love and is always a challenge, spiritually and emotionally. The variety and vastness of it can sometimes be overwhelming. Simplification is the answer. “Less Is More”. The last light of the day or daybreak interests me more than other times of the day. I also love gray cloudy days.

Trying to capture the spirit and emotion of what is happening before my eyes is the greatest challenge. “I want the viewer to feel the physicality and emotional essence of the subject matter of the painting.”

Her greatest influence in her art has come from the nineteenth and twentieth century painters George Inness, Isaak Levitan, Bruce Crane, and Russell Chatham.

“Nothing can imitate nature, but I hope my paintings will convey a single quiet moment of the landscape in its raw beauty.”

Exhibitions and Awards

August 21, 2004 -Guest Artist, Western Rendezvous Of Art Show-Helena, Mt

August 2004-Finalist-2004 Annual Artist’s Magazine Art Competition-Landscape