“They say everything looks better with odd numbers of things. But sometimes I put even numbers — just to upset the critics.” - Bob Ross

Artist Bio

Nancy was born in 1972, in a provincial town, in the Netherlands, but she grew up in upstate New York. At the age of 21 she moved back to Holland for love. She has been drawing, coloring, cutting and pasting for as long as she can remember. She was left to her own a lot, so being creative was always a constant in her life. The first time she knew she might want to do something with art, was in 2nd grade when the art class had to sit across from eachother and draw the person in front of them. The art teacher complimented Nancy on the eyes that she had drawn and she was hooked. She was really lucky to have great (art) teachers that really supported her and motivated her to seek a career in the arts. 

After graduating from Skidmore College with an art major and art history minor, she moved back to Holland and stopped painting for a time. A few years later, the urge came back and hasn't left since. Faces have always been intriguing to her so eventually she took the portrait plunge. After some years of doing portraits for commissions, for local shows and for herself, she felt the urge of the freedom of abstract painting. Having taken Nicholas Wilton's Creative Visionary Path course in 2019 and 2021 she felt more confident to show some of these abstracts. She continues to search for her voice, experiment, and seek her true self through painting. 

Artist Statement

I paint because I have to. If I don't paint I feel a sense of imbalance. What I love about painting is the freedom. The freedom to be me. Nobody is telling me what to do, I don't have to take care of this or that. I can just go into my own world, turn up the music and go. 

What I paint, however, is a whole other matter. I find inspiration in so many things, there are too many to mention. But recurring themes are organic shapes, layers and textures. I like combining the "real world" with my abstract world. A general thing that can be said about my work is that it's very colorful and has energy. Portraits have been my go to for many years, but abstract painting has been pulling at my heart strings more recently. I'm still trying to search for ways to combine the two and also hold onto that freedom. 

Eventhough there is freedom , there are certain principles that still need to be considered. Value, design, color, balance, harmony, textures all come into play. I let every layer inform me on what to do next. A painting can sometimes have lots of layers or sometimes they only have a few. I have many things in life that make me happy and joyful or even mad and I try to let those things inform me on what a series of paintings should be about. At the moment I am working on a series that has obvious collage elements in them, which I try to intigrate into the painting to make them look like they belong there, once again trying to combine the real with the abstract. I have many ideas for many more series, so I hope you will follow me along in my journey.