nancy bass
Bass was born in 1957 in Peoria, Illinois and studied art at Drake University in Iowa before moving to the east coast. For thirty-five years, she lived and worked on a farm in Albemarle County, Virginia where she raised a herd of cattle with her husband. There she began to develop her first significant body of works: a series of close-up portraits that recognize cows as individual, knowing subjects.
Awards and Honors: Art2Life International Competition (Juror’s Award), The Artist’s Magazine 2020 Competition (First Place – Animal Division), The Artist’s Magazine 2019 Competition (Second Place – Animal Division), The Richeson 75 Animals, Birds, and Wildlife Competition (Finalist), Semi-Finalist Bethesda Painting Awards (Semi-Finalist)
“My ongoing series of museum paintings unites my long-standing engagement with animal subjects and art-historical tradition. The playful juxtaposition of bovine subject and icons of American Art reflects my larger interest in exploring color, texture, and the boundary between nature and culture. This series builds on a longstanding passion for painting cows that derives from my many years raising cattle in central Virginia. Each painting juxtaposes a cow with an iconic work of American or European art.”
