Barry-Jansson & Associates: Fine Art Portfolio

Nancy Barry-Jansson has been drawing since she was old enough to hold a pencil, and lucky enough to have a technical drawing instructor who served as her mentor during high school in western upstate New York. In her teens, she was taught the basics of shade and shadow, bone structure (for figure work), and color theory. By the time she got to college, she was well-versed in these subjects and ready to take her skills to the next level.

Although she was accepted at Carnegie-Mellon University's Fine Art program, the death of her father brought about a change of plans. She moved to Salt Lake City, sight unseen, to attend the College of Fine Art at the University of Utah, her mentor's alma mater. Though neither Mormon nor a skier, she acclimated to the experience and from the University of Utah with a Bachelors in Fine Art (Painting and Drawing), with a minor in Arts Administration. After graduation, she moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, where she settled down.

Since college, Nancy has worked in a variety of industries, both non-creative and creative. Continually drawn to creative communications, she worked commercially as an illustrator and presentation designer from 1994-2009, and now prefers focusing on illustration services. Her daytime intuitive and creative business skills are used to guide freelancers and small business owners via AffirmingSpirit.

In 2001, Nancy founded Artists for Open Space with 6 other Bay Area artists. In 2004, she left the group to focus on her commercial business. She has taught drawing classes for Michael's Cupertino and Hakone Gardens in Saratoga, CA. Ms. Barry-Jansson resides in the south San Francisco Bay Area, and is a member of the Santa Clara Valley Watercolor Society (webmaster 2000-2004).

I've been working as an artist for so long, and my art has undergone many shifts. My early pieces were primarily tightly crafted representational works, and it has slowly shifted to more lose, non-representational work that borders on abstract. As I progress, I find myself bored with trying to replicate a photograph. Cameras do this so much faster and more accurately.

As a creative artist, I am more intrigued by the ability to manipulate color, shape, and composition, and have moved from acrylic and oils to watercolor. Watercolor is exciting and unpredictable, two factors that long-time artists are attracted to, and I am no exception. I aslo enjoy mixing watercolor with other media, including Prismacolor, a wax-based color drawing medium. The combination creates more the the separate media can produce on their own.