About the Artist
Nancy Cicchetti
Nancy Cicchetti is a painter and printmaker based in San Anselmo, California. Born in Ross, in Marin County, she has been making art for more than thirty years, moving between life drawing, oil painting and printmaking. She earned her B.A. from San Francisco State University in 1995. Her paintings begin with photographs she has taken herself: images from her travels, of her daughter, of experiences and moods. Those photos are only the starting point. Dimensions change, colors are altered, shadows deepen, edges soften or sharpen, until a new composition emerges, always driven by one singular feeling. Movement matters to her, the eye travelling over the canvas, catching the light and the pulsing of shapes. As she puts it, each painting is a story to investigate, and her job is to begin it and let the viewer take it to the next step. Nancy has shown her work locally and nationally, including Falkirk Cultural Center, Gallery Route One, the Marin Society of Artists, San Mateo City Hall Gallery and Gallery 84 in New York. She was represented by the SFMOMA Artists Gallery from 2005 to 2010, won the Grand Prize at the Fairfield Visual Arts Show and first prize at College of Marin, and has works in private and public collections. She is a longtime Marin Open Studios participant.
“Nancy Cicchetti is a painter and printmaker from Marin County, born in Ross and working in San Anselmo. Her oil paintings begin with her own photographs of travels, family and everyday moments, and turn them into stories told through light, movement and color.”
The Process
Inside the Studio
The Painting Process
Nancy Cicchetti has been a painter and printmaker for more than thirty years. Her practice moves between life drawing, oil painting and printmaking, and she is drawn again and again to two subjects: nature and the human form. Every painting starts with a photograph she has taken herself. Some come from her travels, to Rome, Sicily, Paris, Barcelona and Sevilla; some from her daughter; others from simple experiences and moods closer to home, a beach at Limantour, a truck, a white shirt. These images are not something to copy. They are starting points of discovery. In the studio the photograph begins to change. Dimensions shift, colors are altered, shadows are deepened, and edges are softened or sharpened until a new composition arises from those elements. What guides her through that process is a single feeling, the sensation that made her want to paint the scene in the first place. She has learned to respect that feeling and to let it lead. For Nancy, a doorway in Sicily or a tree in Golden Gate Park can carry as much emotion as a portrait. Movement matters most. She wants the eye to travel over the canvas, catching the light and the pulsing of shapes, whether in her dancers caught mid-step, a summer afternoon on the water, or a crowd on opening night. Her portfolios follow those threads: Urban, Summertime, Dancers and Reflections. She describes each painting as a story to investigate. Her job is to begin the story, and then to let the viewer take it to the next step. Her studio is open by appointment.
Where to Find the Work
Gallery Representations
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