HARLINGEN — Wearing a bright lime green shirt and open toed sandals, Nancy Fly, a South Texas-based oil painter, explained the inspiration and method behind her paintings.
Fly is not only a painter. She plays the fiddle and the accordion and is a dog owner. She spent much of her life in the music business in Austin but now resides in Harlingen, where she pursues her art career and volunteers with agencies like Angry Tias y Abuelas, which helps alleviate the suffering of asylum seekers.
“I grew up on a ranch outside of San Antonio, and then moved with my family to Corpus Christi for high school,” she said.
“My deep roots in the expanses of the Texas landscape and its rural culture have shaped my creative energies throughout my life, and instilled in me a love for the outdoors,” Fly said.
Fly has made it a custom to paint mountains and nature in real time. Instead of taking a picture of it, she has taken her canvas and painted exactly what she was looking at.
“Nonetheless, it took me many years to find my footing in the visual arts, and it was with the nudging of my kind and very observant husband that I worked up the courage to attend art classes as an adult,” she said.
Fly has been a part of the board at the D’Arte Centre Gallery for three years and considers the art community in Harlingen to be very helpful.
“It’s important to have community in the art. It’s difficult for any artist to create totally in a vacuum. It is important to get feedback and support from other members in the artistic community,” she said.
“People around you give you ideas and it is nice to have someone give you their opinion. The work of other artists makes you better,” Fly said.
Fly will be traveling to Tennessee for a painter’s workshop in October. She said she continues to educate herself and learn new painting methods.
Fly will be featured this Friday at D’Arte Centre Gallery located on 115 E Jackson St.
Art night is from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. in Downtown Harlingen and is a monthly event done every last Friday.
If You Go
What: Harlingen Art Night, event of every last Friday of the month.
When: Sept. 27 from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Where: Downtown Harlingen
