is a self-taught multi-award winning artist with solo shows in Rhode Island, New York, Virginia, Florida, and South Carolina. Her paintings are found in private homes, businesses, and public venues. She can be found nearly every day in her home studio near Greenwood, South Carolina where she expresses her vision in several different mediums – acrylic paintings, found object art, and hand crafted jewelry. A respected member of the art community, she has hosted art students from Lander University and Erskine College; and been a guest speaker to the Art Department of Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York.
Elizabeth Nason on her art process…
I rarely have a preconceived idea of what I’m going to paint. Most of it just happens to me. I put down a color, a wash, a line and see what it says. As a rule, I use acrylics but wood stains, oil pastels, and ink can be found in my work. Often, I will paint three to five pieces in a similar style and then take something I have learned from that and move on to a new challenge. Many times, I will look at a completed piece and only then see what in my life has influenced it. I love doing what I do and look forward to what I find in my imagination.
I work from within. Not painting what I see, but what I feel. Because I am always experimenting with products, tools, and ideas the process is always changing. To me there is no such thing as a mistake – there are just springboards to new ideas. I think my greatest asset is my imagination and willingness to follow inspiration wherever it takes me. Losing myself in the creative process is my ultimate goal.
I’ve discovered you can’t find inspiration. It must come to you. It comes from everywhere and anywhere when it’s ready. A walk in the woods, a sentence in a book, a conversation with a friend, or a red sail on a boat in the distance. But the painting it inspires is never a red sail. It’s just that shade of red that spoke so loudly to you that you had to express it.
Elizabeth Nason
Selected exhibitions and accomplishments from her resume include:
- “Eliz Nason: Latest Works”, Solo Exhibition, Monsanto Gallery at Lander University, Greenwood, SC
- McCormick Arts Council, Juried Exhibition, Best of Show, “I’ll Fly Away”, McCormick, SC
- Anderson Arts Center, Purchase Award, “Picnic by the Loire”
- Discussion of current work and the creative process with students of Sharon Linnehan, Assistant Professor of Art, Erskine College, 2012, 2013, 2014, hosted in Elizabeth Nason’s studio, Greenwood, SC
- “Art Is Not A Thing, It Is A Way”, Article by Amy Alley, Greenwood Magazine, March/April 2015
- “Borders/Crossings/Passages: Women Reinterpreting Development”, Exhibition, Skidmore College, Ann Grey Gallery, Saratoga Springs, NY
- “Generations”, Exhibition, Bowie Arts Center, Erskine College, Due West, SC
- “Rhythms of the Heart”, Invitational Exhibition, The Belton Center for the Arts, Belton, SC
- Television Interview, The ETV Roadshow, June 18, 2005, WNEH-TV, Greenwood, SC