NANCE McMANUS, CPS, PSNM

ARTIST’S STATEMENT 2012

I was selected as one of the 160 artists for the 2011 Chianciano Art Museum Biennale. Elatedly I headed back to Italy in September with 3 pastel paintings, framed and under glass, in tow…actually in my suitcase.

Getting into this museum show, as well as being awarded a prize for works on paper by the European Confederation of Art Critics, is exactly what I have been painting for these last years.

As an American Artist amongst a truly global group of artists the exchange of ideas and support in Chianciano was not only unexpected but a complete joy too.

Whilst in Rome, I was able to visit the tomb of one of my favourite heroines Giovanna Garzoni. Because her paintings (in the mid 1600s) she was a very well respected and quite wealthy. Garzoni bequeathed her entire estate to the Roman painters' guild the Accademia di San Luca, on condition that they build her tomb in their church of Santi Luca e Martina. It was a great way to help my aims and focus.

It was also wonderful to visit Florence and renew those artists’ works that I studied when I was in school there and hear my mentors’ voices reminding me to stay focused.

Being a painter is what I am, rather than what I do.

So on this great wave I am starting a new non-objective series on Prussian Blue homemade ground. It incorporates a strong red and gold leaf too. It came to me whilst in the train station in Rome. So it is the TERMINI series. Three of these paintings are already in my Scottsdale gallery Occasions!

Along with the non-objective work I am still working on the series of raptors in charcoal (whilst still searching for the perfect paper). Many of these will find their way into my book A PASSION FOR PASTELS: BIRDS in 2012.

I will be self-publishing this bijou book with not only my birds in charcoal and pastel but also augmented with haiku. I look forward to also invoke a kind of haiga with the paintings and haiku intertwined.

With a painting already accepted to a show at Fuller Lodge in Los Alamos for January…….another brilliant year on the horizon!