My art education has been an ongoing experience, starting with elementary school art projects, a smattering of high school art classes, and after two years of Liberal Arts, finally majoring in art at the University of Illinois.  That curriculum was a combination of painting, drawing, sculpture, and graphic arts.  Before completing a degree, I left to marry and "create" a family, taking a few art classes at a local college and doing a few paintings at home.
      During these years, I always felt very limited in what I could paint.  Then in 1994, I started taking painting classes at the California Arts Institute in Westlake Village, California learning the importance of value, color, and technique.  I had two excellent teachers, Martha Saudak and Myrna McKee, and the proverbial "doors" opened.  I was finally able to paint whatever scene I wanted.
      In 1995, after one year of classes and non-stop production, I entered my first juried shows, winning awards and have continued to do so to the present.  In 1996, I started into the commercial art show circuit, plus a gallery here and there, and have sold 120+ paintings.  I have several clients who are collectors and have bought from 2-8 of my original oils.
      So, with a virtual library of photos taken on journeys through landscapes, especially in the West, by car and by foot, either backpacking or skiing, I painted three or four days a week for five years.  I have since paced myself to produce more quality paintings.  The majority of my paintings have been California scenes, including the Eastern Sierra back country, Tahoe, Hope Valley, and Carson Valley.
      There are other favorite places to paint, such as the Mother Lode Country, Yosemite, the Grand Canyon, the California Wine Country, Glacier/Waterton Parks, the Grand Tetons, and Yellowstone.  But, I find myself coming back to those Sierra scenes.
      I love how the snow lies in the great crevasses or the play of sunlight and shadow on fresh snow, that may be laced with the tiny prints of a small creature.  I also love the reflection of images in still water, the play of colors and light in a moving stream, or even the split wood and wire fences that contour the Sierra foothills and trees, trees, trees!  And what landscape artist could resist the blaze of the Aspens in the fall?
      If I were to give myself a title, it would be, Nancy Clarke, F.G.W.A.W. (Forever Grateful Woman Artist of the West) or Nancy Clarke, painter of the Aura of the Western Landscape or some such pretentious label.
      Currently, I have paintings in the Brewery Arts Center Gallery in Carson City, and the East Fork Gallery in Gardnerville.  I have had pieces in the Yosemite Museum Gallery, Mountains to the Sea Gallery in Malibu, the Sierra Pacific Power Company Corporate Office in Reno, Genoa Gallery and Coffee Company, the Ansel Adams Gallery in Lee Vining, and the River Gallery in Reno.  For the past six years I have been one of the local artists at the Tallac Historic Site at Lake Tahoe during their summer arts program.  And the last two years I have had pieces in Women Artists of the West shows in Southern California and Chicago.   

Present memberships include:
      The Nevada Artists Association
      Carson Valley Art Association
      Women Artists of the West, Associate

Above Rock Creek Lake Above Tom's Place on 395 8 x 10 Oil	Approaching Hope Valley Near Sorenson's 5 x 7 Oil	Bonsai At Horseshoe Lake Mammoth Lakes 8 x 10 Oil	Carson Valley View Genoa 5 x 7 Oil	Sunset Carson Range Minden 5 x 7 Oil
On the Trail to Roundtop Carson Pass 12 x 16 Oil	Sierra Turquoise Rock Creek above Tom's Place on 395 16 x 20 Oil	Silver Lake Reflections June Lake Loop 12 x 16 Oil	Wood's Lake, Late September Carson Pass 12 x 16 Oil	Woods Lake Outlet Carson Pass 16 x 20 Oil
Lake Tahoe Pleasures Tallac Beach 12 x 16 Oil Juried into Woman Artists of the West Show in Chicago, for the month of November 2006