Art by Nancy Perkins
...I like to paint the sea and 1800 people at the seashore... I find it a wonderful challenge to take an old black and white photo and develop it in paint. I go to the PEI Archives and look up the photos as one source. I also enjoy painting ships and mermaids and often combine the two. My mermaids have been painted being married, having tea parties, yard sales, wining and dining, water skiing, beauty contest, planting a garden and anything else I can think up. I paint in both folk art style and an impressionistic style.
Prince Edward Island offers the visual artist an abundance of subject matter. I can be found on the shore taking photos of the surf and rocks and looking for seaglass. I feel like all is well in the world when I am at the shore. I must see the blue water in every painting. No cats or flowers for me, although I do admit to painting a few in the beginning.
I became interested in ship painting when my son was doing a ship model of a clipper ship. I like the painting on the box. It stirred up my sense of adventure to imagine I was sailing on one of them.
Now, in my later years I will continue to paint as though there were no tomorrow.
