About Nancy Rynes

My love for animals and the outdoors came from my childhood on a small farm in rural Illinois. My Choctaw Pony, named Apache, and Chesapeake Bay Retriever, Ben, were my constant companions. As a child, I often wandered the family farm with pencil and sketchbook, drawing anything and everything I could find. Horses, cattle, ducks, and chickens were some of my earliest subjects. This love of drawing led me to study fine art at the American Academy of Art in Chicago where I learned classical techniques of working from life and painting in a variety of media. In 2002, I began studies under noted artists Ralph Oberg, Dan Young, Matt Smith, and Chris Alvarez. Learning the finer points of landscape painting from these artists greatly influenced my use of bold brushwork, color, and light/shadow in my own paintings. After a serious cycling nearly left me paralyzed, my main artistic focus shifted. The freedom, energy, and movement of both people and animals inspired me to paint larger and more energetically. Now, the majority of my paintings are devoted to these larger, energy-filled works. I look to Artfinder as a way to reach a wider audience, and to get my smaller pieces in front of buyers who might not otherwise have the chance to purchase original art.