It is with great sorrow that I announce the passing of Nancy this morning in Truro, Cornwall. Nancy had a long and successful career and our thoughts are with her family and friends. Wednesday 28th 2012.


Nancy Bailey was born in 1913. After working from the age of 15, Nancy developed a keen interest in photography, using a home made camera to capture images of West-Country views, many of which went on to be made into postcards. It was through this knowledge of light and composition that enabled her to create the striking paintings she is best known for. After moving frequently throughout the South West, Nancy moved to Ireland, when for almost 13 years she produced very high quality marquetry pictures, which were sent all over the world. When Nancy reached the age of 50 her career in painting began, only stopping when reaching her 90th birthday which she celebrated in 2004.

Nancy never used a brush like many of her contemporaries, instead employing the use of a palette knife, applying her paint most commonly to canvas, due to the required 'give' needed when using the knife. Nancy's work has many distinctive features, most obviously the rough painterly surface, allowing true to life depictions of the Cornish landscape.

Nancy travelled frequently throughout her career, including a safari trip to South Africa led by the much acclaimed and well respected nature artist David Shepherd. Nancy painted only a few pictures whilst on the trip, one of which can be seen in the 'Gallery' section of the web site. Other subjects i have seen include continental views and equestrian scenes, most commonly painted whilst in Ireland. She also embarked on a series of paintings of the Isles of Scilly, and clearly remembers taking 5 or 6 works down to the Scillonian at a time.

Her success as an artist has been constant, never finding it difficult to sell work, and i am certain this will continue to be the case in years to come.


Information obtained from an interview with Nancy Bailey in January 2007.