Nina Irwin-Visual Artist

Nina Irwin is a Kansas City artist, globally known for her watercolor landscapes and ceramic pieces. She has had many shows across the country, and several overseas as well. Originally hailing from Chicago, Illinois, Irwin’s family moved to Kansas City when she was six. As the child of two successful artists, she was surrounded by art throughout her childhood, but did not pursue it as a career until her mid-twenties. She attended college for a variety of disciplines, including archeology, anthropology, and English, and had many interests, though none truly appealed to her as a degree. She would often skip her classes to spend time in museums. According to the short documentary "Nina Irwin - Visual Artist", after dropping out of school for a

This piece is a good representation of Irwin's work, largely because it showcases her talent in bringing forth an image or scene without directly painting it on the canvas. This painting, showing a cloudy day, could take place at any time, in any place. Irwin's work often uses similar colors and scenery, but each is distinct from the others. Despite the lack of apparent foreground or background, one can clearly tell where the ground ends and the sky begins. The subtle use of unusual colors, pink and purple and lavender, in the ground and even more so in the sky, fills the viewer with a sense of contentment and

Irwin has no claims to any specific art movement, yet her works often resemble those of the Abstract Expressionists'. Both she and Frankenthaler are known for their abstract pieces, and their choice of subject matter and colors bear striking similarities. Frankenthaler's works tend more towards the light side of the color spectrum, and are often much more abstract than Irwin's, while Irwin tends towards more recognizable scenic views. Both artists express energy in the way their paint flows, and their works seem more like feelings in physical form. They speak of music, of emotions taking visible forms. Both Irwin and Frankenthaler use soft, fluid shapes and strokes to denote how a landscape feels, rather than what it looks