ETSU alumni Nancy Jane Earnest has always felt that her job in life was to be an artist.
She experimented with crayons and colored pencils at a young age. She was gifted an oil painting set at the age of 11, which started her love for oil-based paints.
Earnest graduated from ETSU in 1973 with her bachelor of science in elementary education. She realized that she had no passion for teaching, which redirected her focus to art. She came back to ETSU to obtain her master of fine arts degree in 1976. Since completing her master’s degree, Earnest identifies herself as an impressionist artist.
“I am concerned with color and light…and I paint many of the same subject matter that [impressionists] did,” Earnest said. “Portraits that I do are loosely done, nothing that I create is really tight, it’s all loose.”
Earnest creates many of her works using a palette knife, which she said is like “spreading icing on a cake.” She uses the “alla prima” technique, which means that every first brushstroke is the last brushstroke on her canvas.
“It’s like putting together a puzzle…when I paint things I’m not thinking ‘I am painting a flowerpot’ or ‘I am painting a leaf’…things aren’t so distinct, so I say, ‘I am painting a shape’ or ‘I am painting a color over here’…I get so hung up on painting one thing that I lose the freshness of the subject.”
The subjects of many of Earnest’s paintings come from her garden. Her first painting was inspired by a girl in her imagination, followed by a portrait of George Washington, which she laughed about. Her following paintings took inspiration from the area around Johnson City. Earnest has spent her entire life in northeast Tennessee. She grew up in Erwin, moved to Elizabethton, then relocated to Johnson City.
“Nature inspires me, the mountains, especially landscapes, I’m always taking photos of stuff…I work with photographs in my studio,” Earnest said. “Working with photographs are tricky thing too, you try to not just copy it, you use it as a reference then work on the colors and get everything how you want.”
“Nature’s Faces…Sacred Spaces” is her upcoming exhibit where she will showcase several of her oil on canvas landscapes, portraits and still life paintings. The exhibit is “representative of the Appalachian Highlands…and brimming with life and color,” according to Earnest.
The exhibit will open on Sept. 9 at the McKinney Center in Jonesborough and will be open from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
To learn more about Nancy Jane Earnest visit nearnest.faso.com. To learn more about her upcoming exhibit “Nature’s Face…Sacred Spaces” visit: fb.me/e/2CsGYijrx. For information on the McKinney Center’s hours and location call (423) 753-0562.
