Lynn Nadal
About My Art
I paint with acrylics, ink, collage, and colored pencil. Acrylic mediums provide rich texture and layered surfaces that invite you to lean in for a closer look. I use a jigsaw to cut wood shapes to extend paintings beyond the frame of the square or rectangular surface.
My pen and ink paintings done with a Rapidograph pen show detail in a black and white format on heavy cold press watercolor paper. I often include tiny figures, plants, and animals in the details to draw the viewer in for a closer look.
My work is layered with watchful dogs, birds, and whimsical figures. My images reflect the many levels of dreams, imagination, and waking life we inhabit in a day. I hope to capture a moment in time. Often the moment is between two people and under the moon.
I have made art since taking a drawing class as a college freshman. I specialized in sculpture in college. Raising three sons while working as a teacher, educator, and a children's librarian led me to painting.
The process is like meditation for me. Thomas Merton says, “Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” I can lose myself in my studio and feel restored when making art.
The artist Keith Haring inspired me with his lively graphic images. His dogs were guardians in an era that feared the nuclear age. My dogs are watchdogs reminding me to enjoy the present moment, rather than worry about the past or future. They remind me that life is short. Walt Whitman sums it up:
“Happiness is not another place but this place...
not another hour but this hour.”
We share the world with birds. Birds have been part of the landscape anywhere I have lived; in urban and rural New York, Texas, Los Angeles, Oregon, and Washington. My birds aren't dark symbols or omens, but tricksters in the style of Native American storytellers. Birds are indicators of a healthy environment.
I paint with acrylics, ink, collage, and colored pencil. Acrylic mediums provide rich texture and layered surfaces that invite you to lean in for a closer look. I use a jigsaw to cut wood shapes to extend paintings beyond the frame of the square or rectangular surface.
My pen and ink paintings done with a Rapidograph pen show detail in a black and white format on heavy cold press watercolor paper. I often include tiny figures, plants, and animals in the details to draw the viewer in for a closer look.
My work is layered with watchful dogs, birds, and whimsical figures. My images reflect the many levels of dreams, imagination, and waking life we inhabit in a day. I hope to capture a moment in time. Often the moment is between two people and under the moon.
I have made art since taking a drawing class as a college freshman. I specialized in sculpture in college. Raising three sons while working as a teacher, educator, and a children's librarian led me to painting.
The process is like meditation for me. Thomas Merton says, “Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” I can lose myself in my studio and feel restored when making art.
The artist Keith Haring inspired me with his lively graphic images. His dogs were guardians in an era that feared the nuclear age. My dogs are watchdogs reminding me to enjoy the present moment, rather than worry about the past or future. They remind me that life is short. Walt Whitman sums it up:
“Happiness is not another place but this place...
not another hour but this hour.”
We share the world with birds. Birds have been part of the landscape anywhere I have lived; in urban and rural New York, Texas, Los Angeles, Oregon, and Washington. My birds aren't dark symbols or omens, but tricksters in the style of Native American storytellers. Birds are indicators of a healthy environment.
My jigsaw with a cut wood tree.
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A Pile of art with wood attached beyond the frame.
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