A work of art should be an artist’s most sincere statement. Each painting I begin with a desire to make something satisfying and true. 

-Nancy Wissemann-Widrig 

Nancy Wissemann-Widrig, now in her 90s, still spends her summers painting intimate scenes of Maine en plain air (outside). For most of her career, she and many of her female peers working in figurative painting were overshadowed by mostly male artists who created large-scale, abstract, and minimalist paintings. Within the last decade, a resurgence of figurative art has flourished, and many in the art world are paying attention to earlier female figurative artists with deeper appreciation and respect. Close perspective vignette-style paintings like those of Wissemann-Widrig feel novel, refreshing, and new. Garden as a Metaphor exemplifies the artist’s painting style: she places the viewer exactly where she painted, fully immersed in a garden’s wild glory.  

-Jill Ahlberg Yohe, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art