Unique Expressions

Summers are hot in Texas—and this past summer was one of the worst that Nancy Bush can remember. She was born and raised in the Lone Star State and has lived there almost all of her adult life, so for the most part she’s used to the heat. But this summer, she says, was harder than usual.

“It was a brutal summer this year—warmer than past summers,” she says. “But hot is hot, and that’s what we have down here now. Of course, most everyone has air conditioning here, or there would for sure be a massive migration to the north.”

But even in the midst of a summer bug that left her without a voice for much of August, Bush wasn’t willing to entertain the notion of heading north herself. She’s too attached to the rolling landscapes near her Fredericksburg home and to the wide-open spaces that provide endless fodder for her moody, ethereal paintings—and, yes, even to the weather.

Weather often factors into Bush’s work, in part because it adds drama and energy to a painting.