Artwork copyright Nancy Halbrooks. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Summer Garden, 1995

Nancy Halbrooks
(American, born 1953)

Location: Lincoln Elementary, Vancouver

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

Summer Garden is a large and vibrantly colored pastel drawing by artist Nancy Halbrooks. Inspired by her experiences gardening, she created this artwork in the summer of 1995. She notes, “My own garden is a rich tapestry of birds, insects, flowers and plants and often overgrown, overrun with weeds and rarely tidy. I like traditional and common flowers such as dahlias, daisies and sunflowers, loud and brassy flowers typical of the summer and easy to grow. The crow is a favorite figure of mine, a character that inhabits our area with its wise and comic antics and fills it with sound. I honor the insect by including a bug or two, also part of the rich life of the garden…The garden became a metaphor for the creative process for me, the garden of one’s self and mind, rich with possibilities and potential.”

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with Vancouver School District.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Ohio-based artist Nancy Halbrooks creates figurative and abstract oil paintings, drawings, and prints. Many of her artworks feature imagery of birds and explore themes of endurance, adaptation, and community. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Indiana University and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Washington in Seattle in 1977. She lived in Seattle for 22 years during the 1980s and 90s.