On the left is an oil on linen, 25" x 32" painting titled Faith by Nancy Howe and, on the right, an oil on canvas, c. 1667-68 titled Mistress and Maid by Johannes Vermeer from the Frick Collection in New York.
In this side by side comparison, the similarities are obvious if not "stunning!" There's the dark background to set off the foreground images and create a feeling of depth, there's the front lighting to illuminate the images, there's the choice of two "females" in each painting, albeit one is feline yet we often "associate" felines with feminism. Finally, in both paintings, the "subject of focus" is facing away from us making it difficult if not impossible to see their faces while the "subordinate subjects" (the cat and the maid) are facing toward us.
On the left is an oil, 17" x 24" painting titled Intimate Nature by Nancy Howe and, on the right, an oil on canvas, 1909 titled Lady Astor by John Singer Sargent, Private Collection.
Again, the similarities are striking. Again, there's the dark background that sets off the foreground images and creates that feeling of depth and there's the front lighting to illuminate the images. However, this time, the subject matter differs in gender as well as pose. The young man is concentrating on his reading, seemingly unaware of the cockatiel perched on his chest. On the other hand, Lady Astor is definitely posing for her portrait. Still, we can see just the way in which Howe used the same soft, feathered edges as Sargent to create a kind of "gentleness" and of "warmth" to the figure in her painting as did Sargent to the figure in his.
Pablo Picasso had so many "periods" that it is impossible to truly judge which period that Howe found most fascinating. Perhaps as is seen here, it was merely an interest in experimenting with still lifes. On the left is an oil, 10" x 21" painting titled Released by Nancy Howe and, on the right, a painting from Picasso's "Beginnings in Cubism" period, 1908 titled Pitcher and Bowls.
Although Howe's is by far softer, less "cubist" than Picasso's, the observer can still see a strong similarity in the placement of the objects, the darkness of the background for depth and the brown hues of pottery and "death."
"I'm a detail person, in life as well as in art; that's how I see things. Now I'm learning that detail is most effective when it's controlled, balanced against areas more broadly painted."
Nancy Howe
From "Into the Light" by Michael McIntosh, Wildlife Art News Magazine, July/August 1995
In comparing these two images, there can seemingly be none. One is dark and rendered in close proximity to its subjects whereas the other is rendered to show a vast landscape of forest and mountains. On the left is an oil, 28" x 21," 1995 titled Little Melody by Nancy Howe and, on the right, a watercolor over graphite, 13.75" x 19.25", 1891 titled The Woodcutter by Winslow Homer, Private Collection.
It is, however, in these two images that we see Howe's interpretation of rugged country, the need to have great survival skills in an unforgiving landscape, whether that survivor is bird or man. In this image, Howe is not so much emulating a style or technique but, rather, a meaning, a story told in a visual statement.
The left painting is an 18" x 30" painting titled Surfacing by Nancy Howe and the right painting is an oil on canvas, 144.3cm x 162.5cm, 1871, titled Arrangement in Grey and Black: Portrait of the Painter's Mother by James Whistler, Musee d'Orsay, Paris.
Here, it seems that we have come full circle. In what is, perhaps, Whistler's most famous painting, the surroundings are dark but the focus is clearly on his mother's face and wall paintings, bringing the viewers eye to what Whistler felt was most important and to what Whistler wanted to say about his mother. Howe's painting, too, is surrounded in darkness focusing light and the viewers eye in the center of activity. The colorful fish but only two are white, the white waterlily and the lighter colored pond bottom bringing the viewers eye to what Howe wanted us to see, to know about a world that few are aware exists.
For many artists, including Nancy Howe, the best way to learn the Master's techniques and style is to copy many of their famous works. Even one of the world's most renowned art museums, the Louvre in Paris, recognizes the benefits of copying the works of the Master's by allowing artists to set up their easels in front of an admired Master painter and create copies in whatever medium they choose. And, in Japan, one of the greatest complements that can be paid to an admired individual, is to copy and, eventually, exceed that persons abilities and reputation. It seems here among these examples that Nancy Howe is well on her way to becoming a true Master Artist!