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Nance McManus

Bio

“It’s been years since I moved back home to New Mexico after living almost 10 years in Europe. I still hear the voices of not only the living artists but also the historical masters of art that I studied with in England, France, and, especially, Italy. The biggest change for me was winning a scholarship from the Scottsdale Artist’s School to work with Howard Post .I ended up rushing headlong into a passion with pastels. The freedom I have whilst working in pastels keeps me enthusiastic about painting all the time In recent years I have taken courses with master pastelists Doug Dawson and Richard McKinley, landscape painter Gil Dillinger, equine artist Sam Savitt, and fundamental anatomy for sculpture with retired orthopedic surgeon Dr. Wilfred Stedman. My nudes are included on Ruth Block's "Painting the Figure in Watercolor" videos. Leo Neufeld has continued to keep me focused on the gestural quality of any painting. My good friend and mentor Bill Herring helps me keep my aesthetic river within its creative banks. In 2008 a book of my pastel paintings of birds: Avian Ambassadors Pastelled is planned to be published. I am continually challenged by the images of birds, their colour, and motion. Birds are built form for function and it makes them compositionally exquisite. 2008 is also my second year to be invited back as one of the 50 artists to participate in COWGIRL UP! at the Desert Caballeros Western Museum in Wickenburg. I hope to continue my work in pastel painting as well as teaching in the future on pastel materials and composition. Color and composition keep me studying more and developing better paintings. I remember back in university wandering around trying to “find” something to paint. Now there are just not enough hours in the day to paint it all.”

AMSTERDAM WHITNEY GALLERY – Chelsea, NYC
es POSIBLE – Scottsdale, AZ
CEDAR STREET GALLERY – Honolulu, Hawaii
CONNECTICUT PASTEL SOCIETY - Signature Member

Artist-in-Residence - Avian Ambassadors - Flights of Education

Artist Statement

ARTIST STATEMENT 2007 Nance McManus, CPS

Everyday I am overwhelmed when I start to paint.
When I see the color on the surface I am enlightened…then rejuvenated. My choice of pastel painting (yes, pure pigment) is the immediacy and the response of the paint from my heart and to my hand. I can’t be bothered to mix colors or wait for pigment to dry. I am very happy to walk by the studio, pick up a pastel, and go to work on a section that needs to be changed or enhanced at a moment’s response. It is that flexibility that allows this painter total freedom in her painting. I don’t have to worry about getting it right the first time as I can always go back in to the painting with a different color or thought process. Taking my mentor’s suggestion of a three-year sabbatical (1999-2002) to only study and not sell any art was the best part of my whole art education. It made me focus on my commitment to art as well as composition and drafting. Whilst using pastels I am forced to use pure color, which suits me, just fine! I find in using my own textured ground I can also take advantage of the motion of the surface to enhance my paintings. I like the idea that a viewer might get one impression from across the room and then when they move closer there is much more to be found in the layers of paint. This all makes for a more dimensional painting. The viewer will also notice that I do not sign my work. There is a chop, or impression made from stone, put on all my paintings. This image is a bat…. a sign of good fortune. I wish I could explain why I love to paint. My mother was a painter and I was raised in that kind of atmosphere: studio, oils, and art history. That’s not mentioning the wonderful collection of art we had in our home too. Mother and I would go to the zoo with a packed lunch and our Japanese brush painting sets and paint gesturals of the otters and the birds. I think I was about 6 or 7 years old. Painting is what we “did”. The only things I wanted to do when I “grew up” were to paint and to ride my horses. This is precisely what I am doing. It reminds me that luck IS when preparedness meets opportunity!!!!