Gwen Nagel

Originally from the prairies of Minnesota, Gwen Nagel painted in oils as a teenager before beginning her formal study of art at the university of Minnesota. She switched majors, however, eventually earning a Ph.D. in English at Tufts University. She has published scholarly pieces on Hemingway, Styron, Anne Sexton, and the Maine writer Sarah Orne Jewett, as well as poetry and short fiction. Gwen taught writing and American Literature at Harvard Business School, Tufts, Bentley College, and the University of Georgia. She lived in the Boston area for twenty years, but on moving to Athens, Georgia, in 1991 she began to rekindle her love of painting. Since June of 1997 she has devoted herself full time to her art.

An artist friend in Maine introduced her to pastels and plein air painting a few years ago, and since then she has taken workshops in oil and pastel with many nationally known artists. She has studied watercolor with Betty Lou Schlemm, Frank Webb, Skip Lawrence, Tony Van Hasselt, Tony Couch, and Judi Wagner, among others.

A resident of Athens and a founding member and past president of the Plein Air Painters of the South East (www.PAP-SE.com), Gwen particularly enjoys working on location in a variety of mediums. She also maintains membership in the Southeastern Pastel Society and the Oil Pastel Society. In the summer she lives in the western mountains of Maine where she paints on location both in the lake district and on the coast. In the winter she enjoys plein air work on the Georgia coast. Her work has been in numerous exhibitions and may be seen in galleries in Maine and, in the south, in Watkinsville, Athens, and Greensboro, Georgia. She also paints from her travels abroad, including Italy, Ireland, and Norway. Her paintings have appeared on four book covers and 6 of her pieces are included in Athens Sketchbook (Indigo Publishing, 2005). She welcomes commissions: portraits in watercolor and landscapes in both watercolor and pastel.

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