M.C. CHURCHILL-NASH - Artist Bio

M.C. Churchill-Nash 1 www.mccn-ﬁneart.com

M.C. Churchill-Nash ’till the cows come home...

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

Farrier Day (transparent watercolor and white gouache)

The Lounger (watercolor on Yupo)

M.C. Churchill-Nash 2 www.mccn-ﬁneart.com

had good basics in both studio courses (drawing, painting,

sculpture, and fabric design) and art history, which were

further reinforced with a sophomore year interim study trip

to Europe where Churchill-Nash was able to see so many

major works in person…. Rijksmuseum, Louvre, Prado… The

work of Goya in the Prado and Rembrandt’s Jewish Bride in

the Rijksmuseum made a big impact and led to research on

old master painting methods and materials.

day…she swore she’d never work in commercial art (“Never

say never.”) Art majors were required to take electives outside

their specialty, and, of course, Light Horse Management in

the ag school was one such elective, Casper still being a

large part of her life, even though he wasn’t ridden much

during college years.

After graduation the family construction business needed an

oﬃce person. Churchill-Nash needed studio space. The com-

bination worked out for plenty of creative time, plus hands

on learning about running a business, taxes, and (back to

the math phobia!) learning to estimate painting and concrete

for jobs. Doing some drafting and drawing elevations for

remodel projects led to a brief fascination with architecture…

until she realized the vast majority of architects designed

warehouses, not FLW’s Falling Water House.

“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.”

Finances being a consideration, transfer to hometown Univer-

sity of Tennessee was the only choice to complete her BFA.

There Churchill-Nash continued to dip into various mediums

not previously available (watercolor and stone lithography),

plus many specialized art history courses. After taking her

ﬁrst watercolor classes she changed her concentration from

oil painting to a combo of oil and watercolor. Watercolor

instructor, Carl Sublet, taught various techniques using mixed

media with watercolor that greatly inﬂuenced all her work on

paper. Experience with layout and paste-up in high school

journalism got her a student job in the graphic arts depart-

ment at UT. After pasting up senior standing sheets day after

Giles and the Girls (watercolor)

The Red Mile (watercolor and prismacolor pencil)

Calvin (transparent watercolor and white gouache)

M.C. Churchill-Nash 3 www.mccn-ﬁneart.com

Meanwhile she worked to improve her drawing and painting

skills, reading, visiting museums, along with entering local and

national juried shows, and doing local art fairs. Churchill-

Nash found a niche in miniature work and entered miniature

and small works shows, winning some awards and making

sales. The study of old masters oil painting techniques led

to teaching classes in beginning and intermediate oil paint-

ing for the Tennessee Artists Association, local arts group.

Casper continued to be a distraction… along with seeing

a handspinning demonstration and developing in interest

in both spinning and ﬁber arts. While working in construc-

tion, painting, and spinning (charter member of TN Valley

Handspinners Guild), she took a riding vacation at a school

in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. There as well as riding

she got to see interesting archeological sites, met local artists

creating beautiful silver work, and was amazed at the bright

color palette of the Mexican crafts. At the riding school she

met some riders from Florida that increased her interest in

competitive dressage — minor detour to concentrate more

on riding skills and traveling to horse shows.

During this period there were two critical events that helped

shape the course of Churchill-Nash’s subject matter. The

Harness Tracks of America started an art competition and

auction to promote ﬁne art depicting Standardbreds and har-

ness racing. In the inaugural show Churchill-Nash won 3rd

place in the drawing category for her pen & ink “The Red Mile”

and sold pieces in that and several other HTA auctions. Around

the same time she was invited to do live dog portraits for a

joint Humane Society and Purina program to ID tattoo dogs

for a national data base to ﬁnd lost pets. Drawing squirming

dogs at the animal shelter honed her animal portraiture skills.

That plus a local gallery owner that bought paintings outright

and funneled commission work her way were the beginnings

of an animal portrait business that continues today.

The studio in the construction oﬃce allowed Churchill-Nash

to work simultaneously in oil, watercolor, and pen & ink. The

pen and ink work, inﬂuenced by the gray tones achieved

with stone lithography and the work of M.C. Eicher, often

won awards and accolades from other artists. For the animal

commission work, watercolor was preferable due to the

preference for color over black and white, and shorter turn

around than oil, so more and more work was in watercolor

or watercolor with mixed media.

Another Brahma Bull (watercolor)

M.C. Churchill-Nash 4 www.mccn-ﬁneart.com

A chance meeting with a brahma bull on a ranch in Florida

began a series of watercolor paintings of that bull which has

lasted for decades. “I was fascinated by his size, color, and

the multiple neck folds…when he came right up to the fence

to have his face scratched I was in love!” Her ﬁrst painting

of the bull won a purchase award. Many of the farms where

Casper was stabled also ran cattle so other cows of various

breeds and colors have been added to her body of work.

The Big Detour — marriage and move to Charlotte, NC. Of

course, Casper moved too. Here Churchill-Nash joined the

two local visual arts organizations and began to enter their

juried shows, continued to enter miniature and other out of

town/state shows, and build up her commission business.

Another turn came when the then president of the Guild of

Charlotte Artists saw her pen & ink work at a show, hired

her to illustrate the Duke Endowment’s annual report, and

oﬀered her a full time graphics job. From there staﬀ/contract/

freelance graphic design and illustration took up more time,

but created a steady income. The switch over to computer

graphics happened shortly before her son was born, which

made freelancing from home a welcome option.

Still actively participating in shows with the local arts groups,

she began to promote animal paintings at pet expos, horse

shows, and dog shows. In order to hone her human portrait

skills Churchill-Nash took portrait courses at the local com-

munity college with Rita Reed, and workshops with fresco

and classical painter, Charles Kapsner.

Her husband’s ‘day job’ (by night a musician) oﬃces moved

across the state line to SC at about the same time the family

was looking for a bigger house — with land for horses. A move

15 miles south gave some breathing room both for horses and

for art. A two story detached workshop was remodeled for

both computer/oﬃce space and studio space upstairs over

looking the horse pasture.

“I have several pieces of MC's artwork in my house

— pieces that I have bought just because I loved

them, and paintings that I commissioned speciﬁcally

for me — my beloved Golden, Rory; my horses, Jack

and Dolly; mares and foals that brighten my baby's

room. Even after years of having these pieces, a total

of fourteen, I still love to take a "gallery crawl" and

soak them in. It warms my soul.”

— Sarah H.

Farm Series (watercolor on Yupo)

“Baa Baa” 8x8 watercolor on Yupo

(top left

)

South Carolina Watermedia Show Award

I think this is the perfect example

that size should not matter when

you are judging a piece. This is a

small work, but there is a lot going

on inside it. The texture of the paint

is handled at the scale of the piece,

so when you come up to it there is

a lot to reward you looking into the

surface. It is also just a charming

portrait of the animal — there’s some

personality there. I love the use of

color that is not just naturalistic, not

exactly what is there, but the artist

has made some color decisions for

personal reasons of her own. I think

a little piece like this is a gem and it

stands against the larger works.

— Juror, Marc Taro Holmes

M.C. Churchill-Nash 5 www.mccn-ﬁneart.com

Churchill-Nash’s recent activity has included several group

shows and a solo gallery show in Charleston, SC; acceptance

to ArtFields, a nine day juried festival open to artists in all

media who live in the twelve Southeastern states; becoming

a Member in Excellence in the South Carolina Watermedia

Society; and juried in to the South Carolina Artisans Center.

Participation in local Arts Council projects has covered

exhibits, teaching workshops, and on-site demonstrations at

AG+ART — an April event that pairs artists and crafts people

with area farms for a multi-county self-guided tour. In order

to break out of her natural hermit habit, she joined a group

of younger area artists, Friday Arts Project, that have two

monthly drawing nights (still life and portrait) as well as

occasional Plein Air get-togethers at local farms and parks.

Lately Churchill-Nash has been developing her watercolor

and mixed media techniques, and while the subject matter

is still primarily animals and people, the compositions are

tighter cropped — breaking things down into basic shapes.

Her color palette has become less realistic and more vibrant.

Working on plate surface paper or board she likes to remove

paint, reworking areas in a very un-traditional method from

traditional watercolor. There is still a back and forth with the

commission work where more realism in color and textures

is often required, but the compositions are becoming similar.

Whether animal or human subjects… the eyes are still the

primary focal point. Discovery of Yupo as a base for pure

watercolor has led to experimentation with ﬂuid/pigment

interactions on the non-absorbent surface and ever more

intense color.

mccn@mccn-ﬁneart.com

Rock Hill, South Carolina

P: 803.327.9301

C: 803.417-4539