NANCY BUSH

Oil 
Landscapes-indoor-limited to 8 students
July 25 -29, 2011
Pendaries, New Mexico
Tuition $750

Beautiful black cows ,full bodied grazing sheep ,and  misty, atmospheric days populate many of  the  pastures of Nancy Bush’s sensitive and emotional landscapes.  The scenes depict various atmospheric scenes from around the country and could exist anywhere that is special in your own memories.  Expressively dreamlike, they capture the chill when the sun goes behind a cloud, the  smell of a drizzling rain and the rustle of leaves shivering in the treetops.

“The variety and vastness of the landscape can sometimes be overwhelming, but  I find myself thinking “less is more.””  Early in her career, Bush emphasized the “more” using bright, colorful strokes alla prima.  Several years ago, she shifted to a subdued tonalist palette and a more methodical technique was perfected.  She treasures the “fleeting moments that you get in the early mornings and late evenings.  They convey more of a mood, a feeling, because of the light”.  She achieves a tranquil universality in her paintings by melding her painted field studies and reference photographs back in the studio.  “I want viewers to feel the physicality and emotional essence of the subject, and to find a little peace, serenity, and quiet moments of reflection”.

This class will concentrate on light, water and atmosphere and its play on a painting.  The class will also cover how to achieve luminosity in the painting through layering and through the application of glazes throughout the painting process. 

INTERMEDIATE TO ADVANCED ONLY
INSTRUCTOR DEMONSTRATIONS
INDIVIDUAL ATTENTION
PORTABLE EASEL NECESSARY

With a poetic economy of color and detail, Bush, a tonalist, paints low light and close values.  When nature lingers in breathless moments, she is there to capture dusk flirting with the last blush of sunset; moon shadows veiling dimension; or mist hushing the earth.  Studies, notes and photos from painting plein air around the country remind her of the tones, colors, scents and feelings so she can take the entire experience back to her studio and depict the lyrical, the profound peace and beauty in a lonely, exquisite sense.

After a successful business career, Nancy Bush threw herself into studying art at a rapid pace.   She attended Mission Renaissance art school in Austin, Texas-a school dedicated to the study of the “Masters”, while also taking  many classes from Laguna Gloria Art Museum School of Art.  She then began taking 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 later, she felt the need to change her direction after some east coast and European travel. Nancy became very interested in a more subdued tonalist palette and started studying painters from the 19^th and 20^th centuries such as George Inness, Isaac Levitan, Henry Twachtman, and Russell Chatham.  In the early 90’s she became familiar with the work of Michael Workman and Scott Christensen and began to study with them consistently for several years.