Quiet Expressions of Joy

Summer Stories 12" x 16"

Last August, I had the good fortune to be invited up to New England to spend the day with the Putney Painters as they worked from a model en plein air. While most of us gathered around the front of our subject- the lovely daughter of Putney member Carol Arnold- one painter quietly set up her easel off to the far side of the scene. Standing amid the lilies, that artist, Nancy Guzik, set out to do what she is among the best at doing- capturing childhood in paint.

Guzik has long been known for her portraits of children. Perhaps it is because Nancy possesses so many of the best qualities of children that she is better at connecting with them than most. Like a child, she is open, sweet, romantic, innocent, kind, non-judgmental, and filled with an inner joy. Her paintings reflect this, and the work she began that day, Summer Stories, was no exception.

Summer Stories is one of over a dozen new works in Nancy Guzik's solo exhibition coming up later this month at the Tucson Art Academy in Arizona. The show, Quiet Expressions of Joy, was organized by West Wind Fine Art, and will run from March 20th through the 27th. Included in the show are paintings, drawings, and a new sculpture by Guzik. I wish I could be there to see the completed painting begun last summer, as well as the other works there on display.