This post is written by our current Featured Artist Nancy B. Baker. You can read Baker’s artist biography on our Featured Artist page.
Last spring I happened to be reading the paper and noticed a request for artists to exhibit at Barstow’s. This caught my eye as I have spent years coming here especially when we do the annual Northampton Christmas Bird Count. Each year the National Audubon Society asks citizen scientists (local birders) to count the number and species of birds found in an area on one 24 hour period during December or early January. Each area usually has a number of birders cover it and my husband and I have been doing this part for years. Since I have both a love of birds and love to paint them I thought this would be a perfect place to exhibit some of my work. I contacted Denise and booked a time that just happened to include the day of the count, December 17th, so I proceeded to paint birds that we might see during this count although some might be a bit of a wild card!
These paintings all are done with watercolors but most of them include collage using handmade papers. I love to mix the papers into my paintings as they add an element that fascinates me. Sometimes I look at the bird I want to paint and then go through my stack of papers to see how this will add to the image. Sometimes I find the paper and see the bird or tree or flower in it and work around that. It becomes a puzzle to put the small pieces together in a pleasing way to create the image. I hope people enjoy seeing my work as much as I enjoyed making it. Nancy B. Baker