Nancy Swan
A fifth generation Californian, I have been painting the world around me since childhood. Since the 70’s, I have been documenting the rapidly changing landmarks of our coastal history in ink, copperplate etchings and watercolors. Many of my award-winning works have been exhibited at shows and galleries throughout South California and have become part of international collections.
I attended Orange Coast College and University of California Irvine prior to graduating from U.C.L.A. with a degree in languages.
Self-taught, I have developed my own style of art by researching the masters, practicing and developing my own methods. My copperplate etchings technique and choice of materials was patterned after those of Rembrandt. With one foot in the old world and one foot in the future, I embraced the computer early on, before it was taught in college, using the tool to create art for commercial and corporate clients during the 1980’s and 1990’s, and now utilize it to turn my personal reference photos into artistic image inspiration.
Besides immersing myself in the age of digital art as a computer graphic designer, I am an illustrator of books. I have been featured in magazines as well as included among a selection of artists for Art Lover’s Cookbook, Orange County edition. I was honored to be a solo artist to display my watercolors throughout the terminals at John Wayne Airport. Most recently I was accepted into the world-renowned Festival of Arts in Laguna Beach. For the last few years, I have been happily serving on the board for the National Watercolor Society as their newsletter editor.
Love of place provides endless inspiration for my work as I seek to preserve bits of the familiar, snatching scenes from a local landscape and lifestyle that is constantly reinventing itself.
