Although Nancy Howe had "dabbled" in art since the 70's, it really wasn't until 1988 that she decided to take her craft seriously and purely out of "[e]conomic necessity." Beginning primarily as a wildlife artist whose creations were rendered in a near hyperrealistic style using fast drying acrylics, today her subject matter includes wildlife, landscapes, still lifes and portraits that are rendered in a softer, blended style using slower drying oils.

In 1990, Howe had three major successes, becoming the first (and to date the only) woman to win the Federal Migratory Waterfowl Stamp Art Competition, she was juried into a wildlife art exhibition in the prestigious Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wausau, Wisconsin and she placed among the Top 100 in the National Park Academy of the Arts Arts for the Parks competition.

 

Nancy Howe named her East Dorset, Vermont art studio Triple Jump Studio after her "three's the charm" year of success and along with the greater exposure of those successes, came the realization that she needed to build a larger portfolio. Yet, even though she had an A.B. in studio art from Middlebury College, Howe felt that her education had lacked in the how to basics. Nancy Howe felt limited with acrylics and that she needed to learn to paint using oils. It is then that she began an intense study of books and magazines about technique but more important for her goal, she began studying the master's use of light and their softening of details. Specifically, she studied the art of Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer and American painter John Singer Sargent as well as other artists such as George Innes, Pablo Picasso, Winslow Homer and James Whistler, to name just a few.

Nancy Howe is a member of the Society of Animal Artists, a signature member of the Academy of Women Artists and an associate member of the Oil Painters of America. Her paintings have been purchased for the permanent collections of several museums and her art has earned a long list of awards. She has been the featured artist at the Southeastern Wildlife Exposition in Charleston, South Carolina; the recipient of the International Masters Award and Patron's Choice Award at the International Masters of Fine Art Invitatitional in San Antonio, Texas and Howe has also been the subject of numerous articles in several art publications.