Nancy Valk

Nancy Valk is a native of Ithaca, New York where she trained as a physical anthropologist at Cornell University. During the 1980’s she became an established and nationally recognized potter. An injury brought an abrupt end to working in ceramics, and led her during a yearlong convalescence to re-invent herself as a painter.

Nancy has been painting in oil, watercolor, and acrylic since 1988. Today she teaches private and group classes in those mediums from her Baltimore studio.

Nancy’s experience in ceramics is evident in much of her recent abstract painting, in the undiluted, almost “hammered-on” quality of colors, and an un-reworked surety of markings required in the glazing process. She paints with both pigmented and metal-infused acrylics on polymer (Yupo) and on clay-coated hardboard, using multiple applications, partial removals, and burnishing to enhance the sintered and reflective effects.