In early August, Nancy Teague Plank plans to subtly tweak the lips of a sleeping child in a mostly completed portrait showing her grandson cuddling two stuffed animals.
Plank, a member of the Coronado Art Colony, stands inside a small and cozy studio nestled in the heart of Little Italy. The structure is a former mattress and furniture building turned art complex where antique red bricks make a nod to the past while the overhead roar of commercial jetliners flash to the present and future.
But it’s the paintings on the four walls, and on Plank’s easel, where time freezes resembling photographs of family members, travels to Paris and plenty of eye-catching beauty for the artist.
Plank, who turns 73 in September, paints almost everyday inside this downtown studio and it is here where six years ago she made floral paintings on exhibit at the Coronado Community Center and Chase Bank. Her paintings were previously in the “It’s A Beautiful Day” exhibit at the Coronado Library.
Describing herself as a contemporary realist artist specializing in oil paintings of florals, landscapes, portraits, and still life, Plank said she looks for a strong composition with fresh and honest beauty or depth in a scene or photo.
“I’m gravitated to things that are beautiful,” said Plank. “I believe in God and I think of God in everything that’s created… What really resonates with me is when I see something that I go, ‘That’s it.’ And I’ll see it in a photo or I’ll see it in life and it has it all there. … And I try to bring the essence of what makes it really beautiful.”
Plank said Tina Christiansen, a Coronado resident and artist, invited her to local exhibitions and she eventually joined the city’s Art Colony founded by Christiansen.
“They seem to love it,” said Plank about the community’s reception to her artwork. “They seem to really think it’s beautiful.”
A lineage of artists
Plank credits her start as an artist to her maternal grandfather who she called “Papa.”
“He could draw anything we asked and he could draw it beautifully,” said Plank.
Following in his footsteps, at age 10 she made an oil painting with him, where she learned about the medium.
Plank said there are different ways to go into a painting, but when she begins sketching – or grids for placement – she is committed to a piece.
“It just starts to grow until it’s all done,” said Plank, noting she will not touch the piece thereafter.
Plank studied at the American Academy of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and the National Academy of Design School and Fine Arts. On the West Coast, her formal art training includes studies at Watts Atelier, La Jolla’s Athenaeum, and workshops with art masters.
“I cannot tell you how much I love it. I love painting,” said Plank. “… I know it sounds a bit morbid, but I hope I die with a paint brush in my hand and I just get a little bit more before I go.”
Plank’s artistry is shaped by some of her favorite artists such as John Singer Sargent, an American artist, whose “Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose” blew her away in London.
Plank also teaches oil painting for beginners at Art on 30th, and welcomes her family into her studio where they paint as well.
Across her paintings, Plank aims to resonate with viewers as is usually the case with her portraits.
Plank said the ideal reaction of someone looking at one of her paintings is that they feel better, lighter and more peaceful as a consequence of spending time with it.
“That the beauty is such that they feel elevated,” said Plank. “And it doesn’t have to be joy, but it settles in their heart that there’s good in the world, there’s beauty in the world.”
As she continues her work on commissioned pieces, she looks to limit her color palettes and begin daily painting, or timed pieces on small canvas.
“I live in Scripps Ranch but I have a big piece of my heart in Coronado,” said Plank.
To learn more about Plank, visit: http://nancyplankart.com/.
