ABOUT THE ARTIST
Biography: Nancy Jacey is a native of Richmond, Virginia and had a love for drawing and illustration from a young age. She received a BFA in Studio Art from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, (more commonly known as Virginia Tech,) in 2002, and earned her MFA in Illustration from the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2004. She is a recognized member of the Colored Pencil Society of America and the International Guild of Realism. Nancy is an award-winning published artist. Her work has been featured in American Art Collector (April 2020 issue), To The Point (June 2020 issue) and Northern Virginia Magazine (January 2020 issue.) Other notable publications are Color Magazine, the Richmond Times Dispatch and The Directory of Illustration. In her free time, she teaches classes at her own studio, The Jacey Gallery, in Richmond, Virginia.
Artist Statement: Go big. Despite what appears to be the current trend of murkiness and minimalism, I prefer minutia and meticulousness. I work in acrylic, oil, and colored pencil. Details are important. That is why I prefer to create large-scale, photo-realistic works that focus on oft-overlooked characteristics. With that in mind, my process is admittedly a painstaking one, especially with my preference for Prismacolor pencils. Some have critiqued this as a form of over-analysis, but in pursuing the precision of specificity, I find that the best way to emulate the world and capture things in a photo-realistic manner is to not cut corners, but rather to seek out as many minute elements as I can find. My colored pencil works often take hundreds of hours to complete. This is because, to me, each portion of a composition—no matter how small or seemingly insignificant—is just as important as any other part.