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By Christine Fillat
Photography courtesy of Nancy Hammond Editions
Herons in Linear Leaves ©Nancy Hammond Editions
In the painting Herons in Linear Leaves, artist Nancy Hammond creates a balanced composition of four herons precisely placed in a field of vertical leaves. The arch of a branch echoes the arrangement of the herons and randomly positioned leaves of sea grape and oak create a sense of movement in the scene. Look closely at the image. The artist’s hand is evident in the painting. You can see how she throws the paint for color and texture.
Is it a print or an original? Giclée prints are made from a photograph of the original painting. Since the compositions are collage, shadows from the cut paper add to the dimensionality of the image, making it difficult to determine whether it is an original or a print. This giclée print sells for $2,170 framed, $1,100 unframed. An original painting can be bought for as much as $14,000.
While herons are Hammond’s most popular subjects, she features a whole host of other images in her works. Her Tropical Series depicts a joyous life in the Caribbean with scuba divers slinking through waters rife with colorful sea creatures. Her shop, Nancy Hammond Editions, is filled with her collages and gift items for sale.
While she is from upstate New York and lived in Annapolis and the Eastern Shore for many years, Hammond now divides her time between Sarasota, Florida, and North Carolina. The following interview presents excerpts of a conversation from her Connastee Falls, North Carolina home.
Christine Fillat: What are you working on now?
Nancy Hammond: I’ve been working all day. I have this triptych I’ve been working on. After about five hours, I thought, That’s it! Stop! Stop! Whatever you’re doing! It gets to be obsessive. It’s too much fun!
CF: Do you work on paper or canvas, or what are you working on?
NH: Paper. I love paper. I work on Arches… it’s from France, and it’s this incredibly high rag content. I use other paper that is painted paper. It’s in thousands of different colors. Then I kind of muck that up with more different paint on top of it. It’s just that I don’t want anything to fade. So, I always want to use painted paper. I would not just pick up any old piece and start cutting it. It has to be painted.
Then I use a French crayon that, if you add water to it, it turns into watercolor. It’s got this beautiful, waxy, creamy look. If I want to have a looser look for some effect, then I just take a wet paint brush and go over it.
CF: How do you describe your process and technique?
NH: Oh! It’s interesting! First of all, I like it to look like the artist was there about five minutes ago—the artist’s hand was there. I like that rough and ready look of splashes and paint thrown. I find that throwing paint gives a great energy to the painting. You can tell that there’s some speed there with some of those splashes. I go outside and throw it! I feel pretty strongly about the technique I use. It’s very hands-on. To tell you the truth [laughing], it’s still childhood! Using scissors and crayons! I don’t want it to be something where I’m trying to have it look real. That’s about the last thing I’m interested in. I want it to look like it’s made of paint. I like all the dabs and dashes and so on. And texture. That’s an important part of the message that I want coming across. I cobble it all together. I build a painting.
I cut out every piece and lay out my piece, get it all sort of laid out, you know. One time, I almost killed my second husband by opening a large door with wind coming through!
Then I take it piece by piece and glue it. Some get a little bit out of control every once in a while when I forget where a piece goes or something, but you just have to clean up your act and cut more and paste more and make it right. It’s a very fun struggle.
CF: What drew you to art and what has made you stick with it over many years?
NH: I have a picture of myself, and I’m probably about 8 or 9, pigtails and all, and I’m cutting paper. We lived in a very suburban neighborhood, suburban house, and my mother finally set up a card table in the back room and began realizing that it was going to be a constant thing, that I was going to want to do something with paper and paint. Forever. That became a standard thing.
CF: What is your training?
NH: I went to the Rhode Island School of Design! We had an old ramshackle cabin in the Saint Lawrence River, at the top of New York state, right near Canada. In the last summer, I remember thinking, “I guess you should get a job now.” We had some family troubles, so I never really finished. I didn’t get a degree. I decided right then. I thought, I’m going to be a painter. So I got up that minute, and I just started painting. “No, I’m not going to go teach art”—that was one other option—or, “I’m not going to be a graphic artist; I’m just going to be a painter.” That’s my mantra. I decided to stick to it. It caused a lot of trouble over the years. It’s not easy being a painter. But it turned out to be the absolute right choice.
CF: What brought you to Annapolis?
NH: Sailing! Historic architecture. [I] was always enamored with Annapolis, would stop on every sailing trip. [I] loved the vibrant big-time sailing atmosphere mixed with small-town vibe.
I married an architect—he’s well known in Annapolis—he agreed that I could have a small show of my own in a little garage we owned in Eastport. A little corrugated tin garage. I did five silk-screen posters of Annapolis. I just sent out a whole bunch of invitations. Anyway, it was a fantastic success. All in one night. My son was about 5. (So, he’s now 53.) I made $5,000 in one night. I thought, “You know, you really should stick to this!” Because at this point, I was just being a nice suburban mom. Trying to encourage my husband’s career. I thought that was what I was supposed to be doing.
CF: When did you open your shop?
NH: Years later, when my son was 18, I went off on my own, became a painter again, and started my little company. My little business.
I moved into the back of the shop that I opened on State Circle. Those were some of the happiest days of my life. That was so much fun. I had great fun, young girls working for me. We were all fumbling along. We came up with a code word to drive us all forward: “Onward!” We would get terrible defeats, and we’d just look at each other and say, “ONWARD!” Of course, nobody knew anything about business, nobody knew anything about bookkeeping. We didn’t even have a cash register. I can’t tell you how much fun it was.
CF: Although your paintings reference wildlife and nature, there is also a lot of abstraction. Can you discuss the difference or the combination?
NH: I never want the subject matter to be the main point. I want it to be a perfect blend of paint, the subject, and yeah. In other words, I probably wouldn’t be great at portraits because in a portrait, you are actually trying to make the portrait look exactly like the person. I probably wouldn’t be too good at that. I try not to obsess about, “Does it look like the subject, exactly?” What I really care about is if the heron is doing the correct motion. Does the leg have the motion? That kind of thing.
I guess the energy of the subject matter is almost more important to me than the subject matter itself.
CF: And the colors and the vibration…
NH: Right. I’m painting the atmosphere, the energy, I’m trying to interpret it; I’m not trying to capture the scene in a realistic manner. I want to capture the feeling of it. And also, this one I’m doing right here, I’ve gone a little crazy, I’ve decided to not care too much about whether I have the exact colors. “Oh, let’s have everything a mossy green, and a sort of pink or something.” Just let yourself have a purple leaf and then have another one that’s teal blue next to it and see what happens.
So, sort of experimenting to keep myself interested.
CF: See how the clash of colors works…
NH: Yeah, see how the colors vibrate against each other. I don’t want it to come out looking like it should be in Home and Gardens. You’ve got to be careful. And we don’t want to be tasteful!
CF: You don’t want to be tasteful!?
NH: Well, there is such a thing as having good taste. Abominations do abound in the art world, and so I try to have it be something that someone could live with over a long period of time.
The other day, a neighbor who has never been in here came in, and she did just what I wanted her to do. She looked at the painting, and she said, “Oh, there’s a foot!” And then she realized that it was connected to a leg, and then she realized that there was a bird behind this branch and that the neck was down there and the beak was over here, and she said, “Oh! It’s a heron!” And I thought, That’s great! It unfolded. I was pleased with that. It wasn’t just a quick snapshot.
Once a year, Nancy Hammond Editions publishes a limited-edition poster. This year, the poster will go on sale on October 18 and 19, in the shop and online. The subject of the poster is top secret and will be revealed when it goes on sale. The sale weekend is always a party with refreshments and special merchandise.
nancyhammondeditions.com | 416 6th Street in Eastport | 410.295.6612
Special thanks to Kate Hammond for assistance with this feature.
© Annapolis Home Magazine
Vol. 16, No. 5 2025