Nancy Tips: the legacy of Eduard Manet

Nancy Tips

(Contemporary)

American impressionist painter of flowers

“Each of my paintings is an exploration of individual flowers or fruit and particular light. To me, the most natural way to carry out this exploration is using the alla prima method, which is characterized by bold brushwork and atmospheric effects.

The alla prima method encourages suggestion and improvisation; there is a liveliness and pleasure to the painting process that is reflected in the finished painting.”

I discovered this remarkable painter after discovering Stanley Bielen. Digging in and surfing the Internet, the world’s largest museum.
If a comparison has to be made with Eduard Manet’s Last Flowers (see the two before postings) the floral paintings of Nancy Tips I think come closest to that legacy.

Working with and/or having studied with Stanley Bielen (see before posting) in Philadelphia Art School Nancy Tips “never wanted to be anything other than a still life painter. Whatever expressivity my work has gained over the years is due to the fact that it is grounded in deceptively simple techniques that I first acquired in Philadelphia in 1987. Among the wonderful Philadelphia painters, a favorite of mine was then, and still is, Stanley Bielen.”

This is the text I found at Southern Vermont Arts Center where Tips and Bielen exhibited last year.
She has her own website: http://nancytips.com/. A visit is recommended.

I discovered and collected pictures of some 40 floral paintings by Nancy Tips. Choosing a selection for this posting was an impossible task. I could easily fill 4 postings with the same diversity and quality.

Let me know what you think by leaving a comment.

Stanley Bielen: Beyond Manet's Last Flowers

Stanley Bielen
(1957- )
American floral & still life painter

In gallery résumé’s Bielens’ flower paintings and still life are often compared with Manet’s last flower paintings. I just stumbled upon his art but was immediately and deeply in love with these colorful gems.

Bielen was born in Poland (1957) and trained in Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. The fact that he is a teacher/instructor now in Philadelphia and the places/museums where his pictures are collected sums up most of the information available. And the prices he won of course.

As Manet’s bouquets still are recognizable impressions of reality Bielen’s renderings are more abstracted. You just have to pinch your eyes a little more to see the flowers and vases emerging from the background in front of you.

Deceivingly simple as the pictures seem you’ll have to have a thorough knowledge of light and color (and paint !) to take flower still life painting beyond Manet’s final renderings. And talent of course. And an almost schizophrenic brain to transform vases and flowers in these compositions of splashes of paint and color and still create such recognizable forms and bouquets. For those interested: Googling Stanley Bielen will easily show more pictures and maybe (some) more biographic facts. The teacher I am the purpose of my posting is just to make you curious enough. I found some 40 different and choosing 9 from them is totally impossible because they are all incredibly beautiful. But I will gladly do a follow up on request.

These last two paintings might explain why Bielen (left) is compared to Manet (right) I think.

The comparison with Manet’s flowers is probably more appropriate to a pupil/colleague of Bielen in the Philadelphia School. Nancy Tips of whom I will show paintings in my next posting. (I think she is secretly Manet’s great-granddaughter).