M.C. Churchill-Nash 1 www.mccn-fineart.com
M.C. Churchill-Nash ’till the cows come home...
D
espite detours and distractions M.C. Churchill-Nash
has continued to create and develop her visual
vocabulary by incorporating all those diversions into
her current style. From an early age she was surrounded
by creative people and a variety of art forms — paintings,
mobiles, music and books — gave her a well-rounded taste
of the arts. Her paternal grandfather was a draftsman, movie
theater designer, and self-taught painter.
As an only child there was plenty of alone time… time spent
making things (drawing, mud pies…), playing with pets, rid-
ing any horse anyone would let her on, reading, gardening,
collecting rocks. During family trips to stay with her grand-
parents in Kentucky, Churchill-Nash took riding lessons, and
visited the big horse farms around Lexington. Horses were
among her first drawing subjects, and at various times both
a distraction and a detour. The first ‘horse’ was a donkey for
Christmas at age five. The life-long love for horses became
cemented with the first real horse at age eight. Unable to give
up either passion — “While too many competing interests have
jockeyed for position, often distracting me when I should be
creating, they have also enhanced my love of art, and taught
me to see the beauty and design in everything.”
In grade school Churchill-Nash doodled horses on her note-
books, loved ‘art’ time, and would choose to draw during
free time in class. Her father, a general contractor (hobby
photographer and painter), taught her basics of drawing,
perspective, and oil painting. During her public school years
classes in pastel at the Knoxville YWCA and night painting
classes at nearby Maryville College filled out her early
instruction. At age 14 a trip to NYC included a visit to the
Met where a large exhibit of Monet’s Cathedrals and Hay-
stacks impressed her so much she began to consider art as
a career… well that and a horrible experience with Algebra
II that steered her away from a parallel interest in the natural
sciences (geology or biology).
While in high school she ran into her first detour. His name
was Casperone and he could jump large fences in a single
bound. After taking her first jumping lessons on Casper,
Churchill-Nash fell in love with the four year old Thorough-
bred/Standardbred cross. Luckily he came up for sale that
summer and a life-long partnership ensued. Art took a back
burner until it was time to apply for college. With luck the
perfect school was found.
Sullins College in Bristol, Virginia, had both a wonderful fine
art curriculum AND a two-year horsemanship program. The
small campus (the art department was in the attic floor of
her dorm) was ideal to purse both interests without neglect-
ing one over the other. A two year women’s college, Sullins