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OPA Says Goodbye to Master Signature Artist
Nancy S. Crookston
November 23, 1948 – November 17, 2023

It is with profound sadness and a heavy heart that we share the news of Master Signature artist Nancy Seamons Crookston’s untimely passing last Friday, November 17, due to post-operative complications resulting from shoulder surgery. 

Nancy was a beautiful and talented soul who will always be remembered for her kindness, generous spirit, and exceptional artistic talent.  Her warm and friendly demeanor, coupled with her wealth of knowledge about art allowed her to connect with so many people throughout her life.

An avid supporter of OPA, Nancy was often called on to jury artwork, whether it be for a regional or national exhibition or to serve on the Master Signature selection committee.  She was always willing to share her expertise and was well-known for her giving nature and sage advice.  An integral part of the OPA family, Nancy and her husband Garr regularly attended OPA events, and Nancy was often called on to join a panel discussion, provide a painting demonstration, or give a critique.

Early on in her career, Nancy studied with renowned Russian artist Sergei Bongart, whom she often mused was quite direct and opinionated when it came to critiquing his students’ work. Nevertheless, her hard work and perseverance paid off, receiving OPA Master Signature status in 2002; an honor bestowed on a select group of distinguished artists. Throughout her career, Nancy would go on to win numerous awards, winning the Gold Medal at this year’s Western Regional Exhibition for her painting, “I’ll Show You How It’s Done”.

A proud wife and mother of five, Nancy often spoke lovingly about her children and grandchildren, who often modeled for her beautiful figurative paintings. Having moved from Utah to Alameda, California, in 2006, both Nancy and her husband Garr loved the vibrant art community found in the San Francisco Bay area. Her Facebook friends delighted in her regular posts depicting the people living in Alameda, and her whimsical morning breakfast sketches at the local diner became a fan favorite. 

OPA will forever cherish the fond memories we have of Nancy and will continue to be inspired by her amazing life and legacy. Our heartfelt condolences go out to the Crookston family.

To our OPA community, we sadly announce the passing of one of the all-time greats, Master Signature artist Joyce Pike.  Growing up in California, Joyce always knew she was destined to be an artist.  She began her formal art studies with Sergei Bongart at the age of twenty-three, and later continued with Viona Ann Kendall and Howard Reed. With hard work and perseverance, she earned her spot as one of the country’s premier artists, widely recognized for her beautiful impressionist floral still lifes and landscapes.  When OPA created the Master Signature designation in 1997, Joyce was one of only 3 women to receive this prestigious honor, proving that women could be just as successful as their male counterparts in what was then considered a male-led industry.

A natural teacher, Joyce became a sought-after educator who inspired several generations of art students over her 50+ years of teaching.  She was a regular instructor at the prestigious Scottsdale Artists’ School and taught for many years at the Art League of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Valley College.  Joyce authored several how-to-paint books through Northlight Publishing and went on to produce over forty-five one-hour painting videos.

In 2012, Joyce received OPA’s highest honor, the Golden Brush Award, given to an outstanding member who embodies the spirit of volunteerism and generously gives of his/her time and expertise for the betterment of the organization.  As one of OPA’s biggest fans, Joyce spent countless hours working on behalf of OPA. For many years, Joyce wrote regularly for OPA’s Brushstrokes newsletter. Later, she would Co-Chair OPA’s Master Signature Advisory Committee with Zhiwei Tu OPAM. Over the course of her involvement with OPA, she would be called on numerous times to jury, exhibit, locate potential galleries, demonstrate, or participate in the organization’s educational programs. More importantly, Joyce served as a sounding board for hundreds of OPA artists, providing them with sage advice, inspiration, and encouragement. 

Over and above everything, Joyce was all about faith, family, and friends. She felt enormously blessed to have lived such a wonderful and full life. With her family by her side, Joyce spent her final weeks doing what she loved most, painting. As if on cue, Joyce put the final touches on her last painting and passed away peacefully in the days to follow, surrounded by loved ones.

Joyce will be greatly missed, but her legacy will live on for many years to come.

Zhiwei Tu OPAM

I was very sorry to hear that OPA Master Joyce Pike recently passed away. Joyce was an exceptional artist who spent many years volunteering her time and expertise to Oil Painters of America. In the early 90’s, she called many people encouraging them to join the organization. She worked tirelessly spending hours helping OPA Founder Shirl Smithson build OPA into one of today’s leading art organizations in North America. For 20 years, Joyce served as the Chair of the Master Signature Advisory Committee. In 2007 she asked me to serve as the Co-Chair of the Master Signature Advisory Committee, but she did the most work to let me have more time to create art.

More importantly, Joyce was a dear friend always looking out for my best interests. She visited my studio many times and offered me praise and encouragement to continue my painting and to write many articles on my art.  She always said that I was her Chinese son and treated me like a son.

Thank you so much Joyce – we will miss you forever!

Scott Royston OPAM

Words cannot describe what a beautiful lady Joyce was to not only me but to the art community. Her loss will never be forgotten. Not only was she a friend and a mentor but also a sister in Christ. She gave every bit of her gifts to glorify God. She’s shared her knowledge freely to encourage others to grow in their careers as artists and I am grateful to be one of those people. The last call that I received from Joyce was basically telling me goodbye. She knew she was going to be with the Lord very soon and to this day it just brings tears to my eyes when I think about that phone call. It hit me even harder than the call that I got telling me that she had passed. But her spirit and her memory will always live on and I will always remember her with every painting I do. Joyce, if you can hear my voice, I want you to know that I love you and could you just ask the Lord to save a small place for me in heaven as I look forward to seeing you again soon. Grace.

Myles Herman

Approximately a week or so before Joyce passed, she called to say goodbye. She was almost in a celebratory mood since she was finally going to go be with GOD. She was hoping for this for some time. In her typical helpful style (a little tongue in cheek) she stated when I get there, “I’m going to teach God to paint”. She seemed to be truly looking forward to that experience. She passed on all of her love and gratitude to Cilia (my wife) and I, as well as all who have touched her life. 

Having a vision is not merely living in a fantasy world or wishful thinking, it’s a real thing. It implies having a mental picture of something and seeing it there before it actually is. Having a vision is possessing insight unrestrained by factual reality. I’m willing to say all creatives, in some way or another, were born visionaries. Without this bestowed gift we simply could not create. For us, living with such vision is a natural way of life, so instinctive we scarcely even know it’s there. One thing for sure, having a vision cannot be reached without first taking the necessary steps to reach it.

Taking steps is meant to lead us to a higher place, a new level. As long as we keep our eyes focused forward there will be progress, one step at a time. Which in turn leads us to a process, and a process means it’s going to take some time and effort.

In my experience, being a visionary can be a mixed blessing. It can be both exhilarating and demanding at the same time. On the positive, happy side at the start of my painting, I’m all excited. My spirits are raised. Yes! So real is the success of my finished work, I can already picture the coveted red dot on my card. It’s going to be awesome. In reality, that doesn’t always happen. So, on the flip side, the realization sets in that there will always be more steps to mastering my work. To name a few are, studying the good practices of other artists; taking workshops from artists whose work I admire; taking classes to learn new things; visiting my local art museum to view the Masters, etc. 

Honestly, steps might not be the friendliest thing to a visionary. Putting in the overtime. The preliminary grunt work. It can sometimes feel so restricting. At a younger age, I wanted to hasten the process, leap over two or three at a time thinking I’d get to the top faster. If it were possible, I would have bypassed the part about steps altogether and gotten right to the good stuff. But after years of self-examination and growing pains, I now understand the lesson steps were trying to teach me. Whenever I skipped a step in the process, I had to go back and redo, undo, repaint, unlearn, relearn. Sometimes round and round, up and down I went. This madness usually landed me right back to where I started, and I had to take the same step I tried to avoid anyway. 

Quoting the words of a great orator who once stated, “I ran up the steps, skipped over the steps, ignoring them, until I tripped on them, until I fell on them, until they taught me to respect them, respect the process”. Back in the day that was me, young and full of spitfire.

Through the course of my art career spanning 30(+) years, I’ve worn many hats. Graphic designer, product developer, art educator, illustrator, and now after an early retirement, I’m happily doing the very thing I envisioned years ago – full time painter. Each facet has had its particular set of steps to climb in order to learn the position and do it well. And as I ponder these, I see they absolutely prepared me for the next thing.

There is a practice which has helped me gage my progress, especially when it seems little headway is being made. At the end of each month, I log the things I’ve accomplished. Although I keep a journal, this is a separate list. Simple bullet points I jot down regardless if it’s big or little, many or few, art related or not. 

For instance, June’s entry:

• Moved into a new studio.
• Planted a small garden.
• Redecorated my foyer with a modern farmhouse look.
• Canned homemade tomato salsa.
• Sold one of my paintings. 
• Created new color charts.
• Worked on compositional layout for next painting.

A running list helps me keep track of when, where, and what I’ve done. Over time they all seem to blur together, and I would absolutely forget from one month to the next if I didn’t write it down. Each year I do this, honestly when I read it back, I’m totally shocked and amazed. Surprised even, because sometimes I underestimate my own talents and abilities. I guess I’m making progress after all, one step at a time. Thank you for reading.

The year 2020 started off like most years with back-to-back plans for travel to events, shows and other painting adventures. Then COVID 19 hit and we slammed on the brakes of our planned lives. All our friends we planned on painting with, and workshops we planned on teaching were suddenly stripped out of our schedules, our lives. Talk about change! A 360 for sure!

At the time I felt a weird comfort knowing that we were all in the “same boat” and couldn’t feel so terribly bad because FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) wasn’t going to be an issue because we were ALL going to be missing out. So from mid-March through May, the “stay at home” mandate actually created a kind of welcome cocoon in my creative life, when I suddenly had time to make artwork that was experimental and out of my comfort zone. I actually embraced this time and told myself that it won’t last long and that I shouldn’t squander it under any circumstance. So I set to work playing with a new medium: oil sticks. What a fun medium! It was like drawing with big fat crayons that allowed for a lot of interesting mark-making and gestural movement. I managed to be quite productive and was thrilled with all the time available, without deadlines and obligations. It had been years since I had this luxury. 

As I interacted with fellow artists online and over the phone I discovered that many of them were not motivated to paint, were seriously stuck, and sometimes downright depressed. I was feeling really lucky that my mood and energy level was good and hoped that I wouldn’t fall into the same dark place. I also felt fortunate that I could leave my small condo and go to my studio to work and didn’t have to isolate in one place. Even so, I reminded myself not to get too comfortable in this level of ok-ness because at any moment, things could change.

To mitigate my incessant need to keep busy at home while I wasn’t painting, I had the crazy idea to pull out my sewing machine to try my hand at constructing masks. I found a pattern, customized it, and became hooked! Sewing while listening to inspirational teachings became a satisfying tonic–with the side effect of helping others. 

Summer in Milwaukee came and isolation didn’t seem so harsh. Being outside kept our moods lifted with lots of exercise and a few safe outdoor activities. I liberated myself by getting in the car and driving to the Southwest to deliver new paintings to galleries and more importantly, to visit a couple painter friends. What a wonderful re-entry into something “normal.” We even did a little plein air painting which felt like a home-coming of sorts. I was in a good place.

Back in Milwaukee, I resumed my mask-making endeavors and was mailing them out to people all over the county. In late summer with the pandemic still an issue, I started getting the “I don’t feel like painting” vibe that I heard about from others. The cocooning attraction had lost its appeal, and the experimental oil stick paintings weren’t getting into shows. I was questioning myself and my work all over again. I didn’t even like going to the studio. My motivation levels were starting to take a dive. At least I did some plein air painting for Door County’s virtual plein air event and enjoyed being outside. But there was something missing that I couldn’t put my finger on. Could it be that cycle of change I warned myself about?

That’s o.k., I’ll just sew some more masks.

In August, a much anticipated trip was about to happen. A wilderness pack trip with llamas carrying all the gear and painting with friends! YAY! The funny thing about that was I had more fun doing little watercolor sketches than actual oil paintings! I just didn’t feel like getting out my oils and setting up the whole sha-blam! I forced myself to do a few little oil studies, because after all, I DID bring ALL that gear with me to 10,000 feet! Again, I questioned myself about why I didn’t want to paint. I tried hard not to compare myself with my ambitious friends who got up at the crack of dawn to paint before breakfast, but I still felt like a lazy imitation of a painter. Realizing the futility of comparisons, I decided to bask in the glories of the Wind River Range of Wyoming and concentrate on taking photos for future painting reference. It was a bucket-list type of trip and just being there was all I really needed.

When I got back to Milwaukee after my Wyoming trip, I was excited about making some paintings from those photos. But when I went to pick out images to paint from, I was disappointed by how few of those images were good enough to become paintings. Plus, they were all landscapes—not my cup ‘o tea. Should have thought of that one before! 
Mask-making becomes the balm again. 

As we close in on colder weather and shorter days, and with the pandemic still keeping us from dining out and gathering with family at the holidays, how will we stay sane and creatively occupied? Maybe find a different creative outlet like learning a new instrument? (I just bought a vintage bass guitar.) Write poetry, do some crafting, rearrange the furniture, redesign a website, remodel a kitchen, do stand-up comedy on Zoom…who knows?

And what about reinvigorating the desire to paint? If you’re like me and you have to make money painting or teaching, you feel a pressure that’s an awful lot like a job. The “wise self” says to just show up, get yourself to the easel and start. Eventually, we gain the momentum and charge forward by the shear act of putting the brush to canvas. Realizing that, I’ve been trying to be kind to myself and less judgmental about not wanting to paint. It’s really ok because everything changes. Even this will change.

So, why masks? Sewing masks or doing anything with your hands is a way of being present to a task with purpose. A task that involves craftsmanship, beauty and function. A task that keeps your hands busy and the mind open at the same time—a fluid state, not unlike a walking meditation. It helps us to embrace the present moment, which is exactly where we need to be.

Maybe tomorrow’s the day I paint that landscape.