Nancy Pirtle-Connelly

About the Artist

Nancy earned a BFA Summa Cum Laude degree from the Maryland Institute, College of Art (MICA) majoring in painting. Years later she became interested in ecological plant design and returned to school earning a BLA Cum Laude degree from the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP). She focused on a landscape architecture curriculum immersed with plant studies as well as elected scientific classes such as ornithology. These educational pursuits provides Nancy with the background to artistically pursue small complicated natural world subjects. She learned visual and self expression during her early art instruction and years later was exposed to a fact finding scientific approach toward analyzing the natural world in her plant study classes. Combining the two approaches has allowed her to immerse herself into researching nature and in turn express the findings into a visual format.

Artist's Statement

The phrase 'small encounters' collectively describes my artistic interest which gravitates towards portraying nature’s diminutive details. Subjects such as Mid-Atlantic ephemerals, insects that visit or pollinate flowers and butterfly life cycles prevail throughout much of my artwork. I focus on my small, frequently hidden and fragile nature subjects believing that art can be utilized as an educational channel and compel a change in people’s understanding and attitudes towards them. Frequently my subjects are portrayed within a time continuum to illustrate their life cycle in more detail. I also draw large so that the viewer is presented with precise visual information of easily distinguishable shapes and patterns for a better understanding of my nature depictions. Interpretations of scientific data are included in my drawings which frequently expand on viewers’ knowledge and previous experiences with my portrayed small subjects.