Nancy Smith
Drawing and working with different textures is my favorite approach to creating art. As a young teen, I loved nothing more than going to a fabric store to study all the patterns, colors, and textures, and then figuring out how to combine them in clothing. Working with colors and collage materials in water-media is very similar to that experience.
My use of water-media involves thinning acrylic paint to a consistency like watercolor. I use many watercolor techniques such as wet in wet, washes, transparent color layering, and negative painting to achieve the depth and luminosity I like. I combine this with water soluble colored pencils and graphite to add texture to a piece.
I am most inspired by images and settings I’ve personally experienced. My best creative work stems from my subconscious that contains all sensory memories of a place, person, or animal that I’ve interacted with.
Nancy Smith is an award-winning artist and author of Women Speak: Poetry, Portraits and Prose of the Feminine Experience. She displays her works at Hillsborough Gallery of Arts and in selected juried shows in the Southeast.
