As a full time, Nancy Lamers paints primarily with oil and watercolor. Her works are both figurative and abstract, depending upon intent. Many paintings are related to personal experience and or to art history, usually containing objects or set in environments of historical and/or contemporary significance. A contemporary figure may be combined with art historical references to make a personal statement about the nature of a person or situation. The abstractions come as a result of her random marks made in sketching. She finds figures, objects and environments as she sketches. Those compositions are in both watercolor and oil and are almost impossible to explain because the artist doesn’t know what they mean. Lamers also paints dream images. She is professor emerita at Alverno College, retiring in 2014.
What inspires you, and how much time do you devote to painting these days?
Drawing every day inspires me. I usually draw one to two hours daily, or until my pens run out of ink. These are unpredictable and abstract. I just tried an experiment, smearing a cradled wooden panel with a textural substrate, let it dry, and now I will lightly brush over it with black to see what it suggests. A painting like this will go through many changes as I see new things in the composition. There is no plan. It starts completely intuitively. I paint three to fivd hours a day, sometimes more. That depends on other tasks that must be done, how inspired I am, or if I’m at a good stopping point in a painting. If I am painting flesh, I may not stop until a pile of paint is used or a face and arms are done.
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Do you work with other media?
I primarily draw with fine point ink pens and paint with watercolor and oil. Sometimes I use thinned acrylic over the top of layers of watercolor to give the colors more intensity. Sometimes, I add cold wax medium to my oil paint to thicken it and because I like its feel when using a palette knife. I use that and brushes, depending what is needed. I paint in acrylic with palette knife when I paint landscape outdoors on site. It dries faster and doesn’t ruin your clothes when the wind blows your painting into your chest.
Do you sell your work, and if so, where?
I have belonged to five to six galleries over 30 years, until they closed. I’ve had numerous solo and two and three person shows in museums and university art galleries. I also show at many local juried exhibits. I have had quite a few exhibits in Italy, at least 10, where they know me well. I’ve also sold a lot there too and am in private and public collections. I paint on site. People watch me and then often buy the painting. I may have only sold about 10 works through U.S. galleries. Most of my art sells privately. Buyers find my work on my website or online. I am not currently affiliated with a gallery.
