Sporting Dog Artist ~ Helen Nash

"What is it that makes a person want to paint pictures?  I wish I knew the answer to that, so maybe I could find the cure, and go do something easy with the rest of my life. With me, maybe you could say it started with a dog named Mudd." 
Helen Nash has been a full-time professional artist since 1995, specializing in Sporting Dog Art. Her lifelong love for the outdoors is what brought her back to Tennessee, and is key to her paintings today. Executed with energy and authenticity, Helen's paintings in oil have gained her television appearances and magazine covers & articles. From her first art sale in the 2nd grade, to paintings gracing the homes of collectors both nationally and internationally, the thrill of painting is still the same, anew with each canvas.
Raised in the woods of Tennessee, second of nine brothers and sisters, Helen Nash had the world of nature as her playground. Remembering back to childhood days not everyone can relate to, Helen says, “We were never told how far we could go or when to come home, just so we had our chores done before 'hitting the woods', because Mama knew we'd be back by suppertime. I used to tell folks, “Our fare was whatever Mama raised or Daddy shot”. We weren't allowed pets because they ate too much, but each spring we did have a fine menagerie of wild pets—baby birds, an occasional squirrel, and once a little red fox, which must’ve been God’s definition of mischief! The closest thing to dogs we had, was when a couple of old fellas would come by each year and give my Daddy a bottle in a brown bag, and he’d give them permission to take their Coon dogs back of our place hunting.  I would lay my head out the window those nights listening to, and loving their baying sounds carrying through the hollers, continuing all night long.  I’d wondered about how all that worked, and imagined the fine time they must be having.  Daddy told me about a fella once, had a Coon dog so good, all he had to do was lay the tanning board on the back porch the size he wanted his coon skin to be, and that dog would bring one in the very next day to exactly fit that board.  This worked fine, until one day his wife left the ironing board on the back porch, and that dog left out and never did come back!” 

Beginning with drawing the critters around her at an early age, Helen sold her first art drawings in the second grade.  Her love for drawing things in nature has always been a big part of her life—even the teenage years in Kansas where all that was needed in that windy tree house was a sketchpad and stacks of wildlife and western books such as Call of the Wild & Zane Gray.

Returning to her beloved Tenn. the world of art began to unfold with opportunity.  Evening courses at local colleges in areas of art as well as photography were an ongoing part of life while her family was young, with later training continuing with individual teachers. Never satisfied with family and friends’ praises for her paintings, there was ever a higher standard of excellence to be measured to, with always more to learn. 
Working full-time, Helen’s painting for exhibits and individuals was necessarily limited, and was mostly landscape and floral in theme.  It was a big charge, then, in 1989 while working for an Atlanta firm, to be challenged during a sales call by a good customer, Leo Pitt, in Bowling Green, Ky., which in essence was: “$50 says you can’t paint my dog!”  “Well of course I can,” was the reply, “but it’s going to cost you more than $50!” Six months later, the 22” x 28” painting was completed—to everyone’s satisfaction, and even went on to become the Ducks Unlimited sponsor print for the state of Kentucky that following year.
 If the truth be known, that challenge to paint Leo’s handsome chocolate Lab named Mudd was the original spark for the interest in sporting dogs.  For Helen, the single-minded intensity and dedication of a well-trained hunting dog is a beautiful sight to behold.

In 1995, she quit a ten-year successful sales career to begin painting fulltime, fulfilling a life-long dream. Setting out to get the best training possible, she began studying with some of the great artists of our time, including the world's best sporting dog artist, Robert K. Abbett. It was his painting of an Irish Setter in International Artist Magazine which inspired Helen to paint dogs in earnest. 

Before long she began painting commissions for people and hunting groups across the nation.  Bobby Taylor’s brown and white Setter, Shak-Ti (hailing from Winfield, Ala.), was the first pointing dog painted, which was the beginning of a long line of champions, for both the National Bird Hunters Association, as well as the National Vizsla Association. 

Helen says,  “No two paintings are the same, just as I’m sure you’ll agree, no two dogs are the same.  Even with all the patience and sometimes tears in the world put into their rearing, they are each going to turn out differently.  If you’re lucky, you may come across a special dog with that something unknown; call it heart if you will, that raises him to a level above the rest.  These are the ones I’m asked to paint, and--thanks for the honor, yet it’s gotta be right!  From the initial photo shoot to the final highlight brushstroke, the process must all work together to create a painting that does two things:  It must be an exact likeness and at the same time be a great work of art.  I want someone a hundred years from now—even if they don’t know the dog’s name, to want this painting and wish they had this dog!’”

"I'm thankful for my fierce, wonderful childhood, and all the great folks who've inspired and helped me.”
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Several of Helen’s paintings have been featured on the covers and in articles of national magazines, including the Gray’s Sporting Journal, Sporting Classics Magazine, Pointing Dog Journal, Field Trial Magazine, and Retriever Journal.

The National Bird Dog Museum has hosted a show of Helen’s work, and ongoing display.
Tennessee’s Wild Side has featured her in a segment on their outdoor television show.

Helen Nash now works full-time in her studio in the woods just north of Nashville, Tenn.
To view more of her work and contact info, go to her website: 
www.wildsidestudio.com