“Because of the time involved in the painting process, my thoughts often become involved in the poetry of the images as they develop. By the time the painting is finished, it becomes representative of what’s happening in my life or in my thinking.”
About Nancy Meadows Taylor
Nancy Taylor’s interest in art began very early as a pastime for a farm girl who found drawing and painting more fun than raising livestock for 4-H shows! Art became a way for her to be involved with the natural beauty of the rural area where she lived. There, she learned to study nature's details, finding beauty in the most ordinary places.
A BS degree from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, with a major in Interior Design, enabled Nancy to develop her design skills. The painting skills were developed through workshops with painters she admired, such as Jeanne Dobie and Virginia Cobb, and, locally, Ruth Ogle, as well as through critique classes with Joe Cox and life drawing groups at NCSU and Meredith College. The influences she gained from diverse courses and many hours painting in the quiet of her studio led to the development of a style of her own.
Artist’s Statement
For fifty years, I have been seriously painting full-time.
It is still difficult to explain to anyone why. I don’t do it for money. I don’t do it for fame either. I just paint. I love the process of painting. I love to capture the beauty of things I see for those who may not have noticed or for those who notice and want a tangible memory of their own.
Realism is the painting style that has persisted as I have experimented with different ways of painting, though the close focus view gives much of my work an abstract quality. To develop my skills, I earned a degree in Interior Design from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro certainly has influenced the attention I give to details of composition in my paintings.
Experiences
Traveling around the USA and abroad has added a new dimension to my paintings. The result is a rich collection of photographs I can pull from to use for commission work: Alaska, Southern California, Maine, Eastern US Seaboard, England, Belgium (Brugge), Italy (especially Venice), Spain, Portugal, Turkey (Istanbul), Greece and Greek Isles (Santorini and Mikonos). Our latest trip was sailing with friends and new friends, the Captain and his mate (who own the boat) in the British Virgin Islands. This was a wonderful, new adventure for me. Already I'm working on paintings with lots more to come.