Artist Statement / CV Summary

Nancy Buck
Visual Artist | Gouache Painting
Based in Krauchthal, Switzerland

I am a visual artist working primarily in traditional gouache, with a focused painting practice established in 2023. My work centers on still lifes and landscapes and is deeply rooted in close observation of the natural world. I am particularly drawn to the way light moves across surfaces—how it settles on objects, alters color, and reveals texture—using this interplay as a primary organizing element in my paintings.

My still lifes often incorporate antique and historical objects, reflecting a long-standing respect for craftsmanship, material history, and the quiet presence of lived-in things. This sensibility is informed by over a decade running an independent Etsy shop specializing in antiques and collectibles. Through this work, I developed specialist knowledge of mid-century West German ceramics, as well as late 19th-century Swiss ceramics and wood carving. Handling, researching, and living with these objects has sharpened my sensitivity to form, patina, and the traces of time—qualities that strongly influence my approach to painting.

My background includes formal technical training in machine and tool drafting during high school, which continues to inform my sense of structure, proportion, and spatial clarity. Alongside my visual practice, I have spent much of my professional life in social services and education, including over two decades teaching English as a Second Language. In this role, I regularly design and develop original teaching materials, strengthening my skills in visual communication, sequencing, and clarity.

I have also worked as a gardener and stoneworker, designing and planting gardens and building dry-laid stone walls, as well as living in and shaping two homes where I designed and established gardens with fruit trees and hardscape elements. These long-term, hands-on relationships with land and materials, together with earlier work as a professional cook, have cultivated a deep respect for process, repetition, and attentiveness—values that remain central to my studio practice.

My current focus is on building a sustained body of work in gouache and sharing it through exhibitions, markets, and direct engagement with viewers.