Nancy Bush, a native Texan born in Austin, currently resides in Fredericksburg, Texas. As a child, she was constantly drawing and was also interested in art history, but her formal education was in liberal arts, psychology, and business management. After spending several years in the business world, Bush finally decided to pursue her life-long interest in art. 

Her training and love of the landscape have taken her to many beautiful places around the world to study and paint a wide variety of subject matter. “The landscape is my love and is always a challenge, spiritually and emotionally,” the artist says. “Its variety and vastness can sometimes be overwhelming. Trying to capture the spirit and emotion of what is happening before my eyes is the greatest challenge, but simplification is the answer: less is more. I want the viewer to feel the physicality and emotional essence of the subject I’m painting.”

Over the years, Bush’s greatest influences have come from a range of artists past and present, but for the last two decades the artist has settled into the style that comes most naturally to her. “Approximately 25 years ago, I felt the need to change my direction after some East Coast and European travel,” she says. “I became very interested in a more subdued tonalist palette and started studying painters from the 19th and 20th centuries, such as George Inness, Isaac Levitan, John Henry Twachtman, Richard Schmid, and Russell Chatham.”

Bush has participated in numerous gallery exhibitions and museum shows in such prestigious venues as the Briscoe Western Art Museum, the Salmagundi Club, the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, and more. Her paintings can be found in private and public collections throughout the country, and she is currently a Signature Member of the American Tonalist Society and a Master Signature Member of the American Impressionist Society. She is represented by Astoria Fine Art (Jackson Hole, WY), InSight Gallery (Fredericksburg, TX), and Sage Creek Gallery (Santa Fe, NM).

“Nothing can imitate nature, but I hope my paintings will convey a single quiet moment of the landscape in its raw beauty.”