Nancy Friese: Living Landscapes

Painter, printmaker, and educator Nancy Friese (b. 1948) immerses viewers in landscapes that percolate with texture and color. Working outdoors, often on large canvases or sheets of watercolor paper, she relies on keen observation and the ability to register the vitality and evanescence of nature through abundant detail and exhilarating hues. Friese’s vivid paintings and prints burst with life, expressing not only how invigorating it is for her as a contemporary artist to make art inspired by nature, but also the vivaciousness of her muse, nature. Friese touches every area of her canvas each time she paints, sustaining as a living thing the landscape that emerges from her brush, even across numerous sittings.

Often, Friese creates her work at botanical gardens or other preserved landscapes, allowing her to visit multiple times and form a portrait of the place. In 2010, she trained her eye on the storied landscape of the FloGris Museum, which first inspired Lyme Colony artists over a century ago. Among the results of that experience is the large, glowing watercolor Lieutenant River Shore (FloGris Museum) that suggests Friese’s dialogue with the Impressionist tradition. The artist has held residencies and fellowships in numerous locales, including Giverny, Japan, and at the Garden Conservancy, where in 2025 she has been serving as the first artist-in-residence.

Raised in North Dakota and transplanted to the Northeast, where she received an MFA from Yale School of Art before becoming a professor of art at Rhode Island School of Design, Friese’s sensitivity to the distinctiveness of local landscape is remarkable. She delves into the corners that often go unnoticed because we look past them toward something more obviously, even formulaically, picturesque. Like a contemporary naturalist, she finds inspiration and discoveries in neglected spaces, and beauty in what has long been considered mundane. Friese uses brushwork, line, and color to conjure the experience of the place and the thrill of nature’s wonder. The artist’s excitement for her subject and for the practice of painting or drawing radiates from all her work, encouraging viewers to share the joys of drinking in that energy.

For more on the artist, as well as her CV, see:
https://www.cadetompkinsprojects.com/nancy-friese/overview/
https://www.cadetompkinsprojects.com/nancy-friese/works/

This exhibition is made possible with the generous support of HSB, as well as donors to the Exhibition Fund and the Annual Fund.