Nancy Howell

A native of Massachusetts, Nancy Sargent Howell attended Skidmore College as an art major where, having explored many color and design classes as well as assisting in teaching a drawing class, she soon fell in love with watercolor painting. "Watercolors don't always do what you expect but they can also send you into unplanned directions which can be very energizing."  Nancy often uses information that she gathers from plein air paintings to develop studio work that has a more abstract quality.  She has developed a method of glazing her work that she calls "prisming" which clearly breaks up existing patterns while also tying shapes together to form unified patterns.

In recent years Nancy has started doing more acrylic paintings which are making her watercolors even stronger.  "I love taking old paintings and placing new information on top of them , sometimes using collage pieces to add more excitement. Often they have a recognizable subject in them but are settled into a geometric background. I feel as if I'm taking a bit of my past and putting what I love today on top of it."