Description

Mead River Valley-original by Nancy Taylor Stonington-Framed consignment. Original watercolor (c.1978) image is 29 x 22. Framed as shown from a private collection.

NANCY TAYLOR STONINGTON   Nancy was born and raised in Suffern, New York. She attended Middlebury College in Vermont, where she graduated with honors in 1966. She was awarded an NDEA fellowship for graduate work in Physical Geography, and received her M.A. from the University of Colorado in 1969.   In 1971 Nancy moved to Sitka, Alaska, where she began painting full-time. It was here that she developed her love for the watercolor medium. For the next 30 years she traveled extensively throughout Alaska while maintaining a home and corporate base in Ketchum, Idaho. Early in her painting career, Nancy founded and directed the operation of 6 art galleries in Juneau, Anchorage, Ketchum, Sun Valley and Seattle. She began the galleries in the mid ‘70’s to showcase works of Northwest and Alaskan artists, as well as her own work. The Seattle Stonington Gallery established in 1980, has become the nation’s premier gallery for Northwest Coast art. By 2002, Nancy had sold all the galleries and returned to a less hectic lifestyle.   Throughout her career Nancy has produced and sold over 2,600 original watercolor paintings, 248 of which were made into limited and open edition offset lithograph reproductions. Recently, Nancy has produced 26 very limited editions of Giclee prints of new paintings. She has had over 100 one-woman shows in areas that range from Basel, Switzerland; Lahaina, Hawaii; Aspen, Colorado; Laguna Beach, California; Prudhoe Bay and Dutch Harbor, Alaska; and Novosibirsk, Russia. In 1981, a retrospective collection of Stonington paintings was displayed at the Frye Museum in Seattle. She has twice been a guest artist aboard the M.V. Lindblad Explorer: first traveling through the Aleutian Islands in Alaska, and then on a cruise from the southern tip of Argentina to explore the Antarctic Peninsula. Her original paintings and fiber murals are owned by over 100 corporations and institutions, including The Anchorage Historical and Fine Arts Museum, Hewlett Packard Corporation, Alaska Airlines, Boeing, AT&T, Bank of America, American Express, Wells Fargo, Key Bank Corporation, Honeywell, Alaska Marine Lines, McDonald’s Corporation, McCaw Communications, J. R. Simplot Company, Harborview Medical Center, Providence Hospital, Sun Valley Lodge, Harvey’s Lake Tahoe Hotel, and Westmark Hotels. In addition to original watercolor paintings and reproductions, Nancy also creates fiber murals based on her original watercolors, and has produced seven stone lithograph editions. The New York Graphic Society has published and distributes five open edition prints of her work.    Along with painting, publishing prints and gallery management, the following are some highlights of Nancy’s career: featured watercolorist in American Artist, Southwest Art, Prints Magazine, Alaska Journal of Art and History, and Alaska Magazine; guest artist on the MS Noordam (Holland America Line) in Southeast Alaska; featured instructor, Yellowstone Art Symposium, Yellowstone, Wyoming; guest artist, Western Rendezvous of Art, Helena, Montana; poster artist for the Washington State Apple Blossom Festival, the Alaska Railroad, the Alaska State Fair; inclusion in The Woman Artist and the American West by Phil and Marian Kovinick, Alaska Geographic’s – Painting Alaska by Kesler E. Woodward; solo show at the Anchorage Museum of History and Fine Arts; selected to create the carpet design for the Anchorage Performing Arts Center; guest speaker, American Council for the Arts – International Conference, Washington, D.C.; participant, Siberian Arts Conference, filmed at Novosibirsk, Russia; and recipient of private fiber mural commissions for British Petroleum, the Grand Aleutian Hotel and 16 Public Works competitions for the State of Alaska and the Municipality of Anchorage.    Nancy’s work can be seen on her website at www.nancystonington.com.

She and her husband Chuck Beatie are now based in Sisters, Oregon.  Nancy continues to paint on location and from their home/studio in Sisters. She now enjoys a more relaxed schedule which allows her to host watercolor workshops in new locations, as well in the familiar landscapes that have inspired her all these years. When time permits, she and Chuck enjoy working on their land, planting and  raising trees, and tending their many animals, both wild and tame.