NANCY KNOWLES

Born in Oregon, I spent most of my childhood in Iowa before moving to western Washington as a preteen. I have drawn from the time I was in first grade. My Mother, tired of my begging for hand drawn paper dolls, encouraged me to draw my own. I discovered drawing was fun. As I grew older I practiced more and gained experience from more sources, including workshops with established artists such as Jim Lewis, Byron Pickering, Vernon Nye, Dale Gehrman, Charlotte Abernathy, Joy Campbell, Tom Lynch, and others over the years. I enjoy plein air painting, and I find that Mother Nature is a very able teacher also.

I have spent many intense hours observing, sketching, painting, and photographing the scenery of the Pacific Northwest from California to British Columbia, and in the Rocky Mountains from Colorado to Alberta. I have painted and sold my work for many years. I am also involved in music and other creative endeavors, but I’ve never stopped studying and painting. My work has won numerous awards, and is currently shown at the Aurora Gallery in Vancouver, Washington. I am a member of Columbian Artist’s Association and the Northwest Oil Painters Guild. Artist’s Statement All my life I have loved the landscape and the play of light on things, as  well as in the sky. Even as a child in Iowa I enjoyed the dramatic skies that accompanied the thunderstorms there. When we later moved to Washington I loved the mountains and well remember my first view of the ocean. It is this love of the landscape and the light that I try to capture in my paintings. Not necessarily the dramatic views, but the little glimpses that lift my spirits while I go about my life—these are  the things I enjoy sharing with others.