Nancy Wissinger Art Show

Gallery Opening September 13, 2024 | 6:00 – 8:00 PM

Trinity Lutheran Church | 527 Washington Street

In her spacious home studio, surrounded by paintings that reflect her four-decade love affair with art, Nancy Wissinger spoke of her work as a spiritual journey. Her paintings vibrate and pulse with energy. Some explode like shattered glass; others reflect the peaceful beauty of the Tulpehocken Farm, where she and her husband Paul have raised sheep, cows and goats since the early 1980s. Her goal is to share that energy with others.

“I have a very intuitive style of painting,” Wissinger said. “It’s about letting the energy come through me. I used it for myself as art therapy when I was going through a tough time. That’s when I realized how powerful art can be.”

Wissinger grew up in Robesonia on an estate owned by her parents, the late El Roy and Helene Master. She and Paul married immediately after graduating from Conrad Weiser High School, and enrolled together at Albright College, where both earned bachelor’s degrees—she in home economics, he in industrial psychology. For a time Paul worked for the Masters on the estate while Nancy cared for their first child, who was born just after their college graduation.

They moved on, starting their first sheep farm in Fritztown, then moved again in 1983 to their present location, where they raised their two children, Benjamin and Allison. And on that farm, Wissinger found her calling in painting.

When she volunteered for the “Art Goes to School” program, sharing portfolios of large reproductions of famous paintings “to get kids excited about art,” she began to meet people from the local arts community.

Two painters, the late Judith Krieger and Tara Funk Grim (who has moved to Florida), not only taught Wissinger, but encouraged her to join them on their trips to Europe for workshops in plein air painting and visiting museums. She traveled to France, Italy, Ireland, Switzerland and England, developing a passion not only for painting, but for travel as well.

She studied watercolor with Krieger, whose style was more realistic, but when Grim taught her to work with acrylics, her work became “much freer, more intuitive,” she said. “I love the power of acrylic; it has more energy. And it’s more forgiving; you can paint over things.”

Over the years, she has developed her own process, which begins with choosing colors. “I don’t have an idea in mind,” she said. “I feel my way, and the universe is always right. Sometimes I use a gel and apply it with my hands, and feel my way. I also use a lot of dripping, while I keep turning the canvas. Then I look at the shapes, and they may look like a tree or animal, and I may go with that. But it’s mostly about color.

“I’ve done a lot of spiritual journey work, and that has played a big role in my being open to the messages that are coming. I don’t always know what it’s about; sometimes people make their own connections and tell me what it’s about, and then I know that painting is for them. My challenge is not to get in the way of that. I get a physical feeling when it’s done, a tingling, sometimes a little weepy or emotional. When I’m hanging the show, I look around at the paintings, and then do the titles last. They just come to me.”

Until the Covid lockdown, Wissinger held classes in her studio, which she described as “not art therapy—but they were. Some people came for 20 or 30 years. It was a safe place. I felt so fortunate to be able to be in that kind of situation.”

While she has shown her work occasionally outside the farm, most of her exhibits are held in the studio during the annual Tulpehocken Farm Open House, held in late April or early May. Wissinger prepares for a month before each event, baking about 1,000 cookies and other food (including lamb barbecue) and soft drinks. She sends out 500 invitations by snail mail, and guests come to eat, wander around the house and barn, meet the animals, and see (and sometimes buy) the paintings. One year, Wissinger’s son Ben and his then-girlfriend Katelyn Melvin held a pop-up wedding during the event. Friends, family—including daughter Allison Shannon, owner of Allison Clothing Company in West Reading—and even strangers mingle and have a big party.

“My parents were always so generous with sharing their property,” Wissinger said. “We’re so blessed to live here, and I just want to share it. Anyone can come; you don’t have to be invited. . . I’m so grateful to have lived this life.”

Gallery Talk

A gallery talk will be held on Tuesday, September 17 at 7:00 PM. Admission is free.

Gallery Hours

Nancy Wissinger Art Show

Gallery Opening September 13, 2024 | 6:00 – 8:00 PM

Trinity Lutheran Church | 527 Washington Street

Gallery Talk

Gallery Hours

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