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BIOGRAPHY
Nansi Bielanski is a native southern Californian who grew up with a deep appreciation of the exceptional beauty of California's beaches and seascapes. While she loves her home at the beach in Malibu, she is a worldwide traveler with a passion for adventure. Her love of exotic lands and their people have been the inspiration for many of her paintings. Before becoming a professional Artist, Nansi was a Television Director and Producer of many award-winning television commercials. She lived in Budapest, Hungary for three years, producing over one hundred commercials and several documentaries. She returned to her first love of painting and sculpting in the '90's, studying under internationally recognized masters Jove Wang, Jeremy Lipking, Aaron Westerberg, and David Gallup. Nansi is a certified Scuba Diver, and her travels have taken her to some of the finest dive spots in the world: Belize, Turks and Caicos, Fiji, and the Cayman Islands. Her experiences scuba diving in these locations and at the local Channel Islands have led to her latest work in underwater oil paintings of coral and fish. With her involvement with conservation groups like the Ocean Artists Society, Reef Check, Sea Save, Heal the Bay and Artists for Conservation, Nansi is using her art to educate people of the need to protect this fragile environment. Nansi taught Art and Art History for three years while painting and sculpting full-time. Nansi holds a Masters of Fine Arts Degree from Loyola Marymount University. She has received numerous commissions for her figurative and portrait work. She was honored as Artist in Residence at the Carnegie Art Museum in Oxnard, California, and held a solo exhibition at CAM Studio Gallery in 2015. Nansi is an Artist Member of the California Art Club and winner of Fine Art Collector Magazine's "Award for Artistic Excellence" at the 2015 CAC Gold Medal Exhibition. She has exhibited at the Weisman Museum, USC Fisher Museum of Art, Carnegie Art Museum, Wildling Museum of Art and the Autry. Nansi is represented by Primavera Gallery in Ojai, CA |
Artists Nansi J. Bielanski and David C. Gallup being awarded the "American Art Collector" Award for Artistic Excellence for "A Deeper Love" by Artist and President Peter Adams at the 104th California Art Club Gold Medal Juried Exhibition at the USC Fisher Museum of Art
ARTIST STATEMENT
I grew up on southern California's beaches. Body surfing Encinitas. Surfing Huntington. Swimming Belmont Shore. My love of the ocean has always defined my experience as a California girl. A long day boogie boarding at Silverstrand, followed by a bonfire on the sand, was, and still is, my Heaven.
I am lucky to say that I was that kid who got too much sun, ate too many strips with cheese at lifeguard station 11, (or Zacks as the locals knew it), and the kid who got her bikini stolen at McGrath's State Beach while camping one long, endless summer.
I grew up wanting to capture these moments by painting and photographing these majestic beaches and seascapes. I painted my first award-winning beach scene when I was in third grade. True. My ribbon still hangs.
So The Ocean is my love.
Snorkeling the British Virgin Islands years later brought me to the conclusion that I must go deeper. Not only in my painting, but in my diving and in my commitment to protect the ocean that I love. i got Scuba Certified and entered the new world. My new sanctuary.
Diving was like seeing everything anew. Colors, rhythms, light, magic. Stillness, yet energy. Fleeting grunts and stoic sharks. Flow and calm.
Life. There to touch, but not.
This is 70% of our beautiful planet.
100% us.
It is an honor to meet and love this new world with its sweet anchovies and loving, powerful bait balls. And it is my great honor to paint and sculpt this brave new world.
In painting the colorful corals and sponges of the Caribbean dives, it brought back my love of flowers and still life. Inspiration from the deep spilled over onto dry land, and all objects began to look as if they were bathed in the magical light of Caribbean waters. The lines between wet and dry life forms began to blur, and sharing this new, enhanced way of seeing has become the goal of my work.
I grew up on southern California's beaches. Body surfing Encinitas. Surfing Huntington. Swimming Belmont Shore. My love of the ocean has always defined my experience as a California girl. A long day boogie boarding at Silverstrand, followed by a bonfire on the sand, was, and still is, my Heaven.
I am lucky to say that I was that kid who got too much sun, ate too many strips with cheese at lifeguard station 11, (or Zacks as the locals knew it), and the kid who got her bikini stolen at McGrath's State Beach while camping one long, endless summer.
I grew up wanting to capture these moments by painting and photographing these majestic beaches and seascapes. I painted my first award-winning beach scene when I was in third grade. True. My ribbon still hangs.
So The Ocean is my love.
Snorkeling the British Virgin Islands years later brought me to the conclusion that I must go deeper. Not only in my painting, but in my diving and in my commitment to protect the ocean that I love. i got Scuba Certified and entered the new world. My new sanctuary.
Diving was like seeing everything anew. Colors, rhythms, light, magic. Stillness, yet energy. Fleeting grunts and stoic sharks. Flow and calm.
Life. There to touch, but not.
This is 70% of our beautiful planet.
100% us.
It is an honor to meet and love this new world with its sweet anchovies and loving, powerful bait balls. And it is my great honor to paint and sculpt this brave new world.
In painting the colorful corals and sponges of the Caribbean dives, it brought back my love of flowers and still life. Inspiration from the deep spilled over onto dry land, and all objects began to look as if they were bathed in the magical light of Caribbean waters. The lines between wet and dry life forms began to blur, and sharing this new, enhanced way of seeing has become the goal of my work.
