About the Artist

Nancy Suddeth Corbett is an artist native to Cincinnati, Ohio, who now resides in Northern Kentucky.  Mainly self-taught, Nancy has sold many portraits and scenic paintings in watercolor, oils, and pastels, to individuals, small companies, and large corporations in the United States, Canada, and Scotland.  One of her portraits hangs in the University of Cincinnati’s School of Nursing.

She began painting seriously after graduating from high school in 1980.  During this time, Nancy worked exclusively with watercolors.  In 1981, she won a scholarship to the Art Academy of Cincinnati.  She also won numerous awards including an Honorable Mention Ribbon at the Ohio State Fair in 1981 and The Cincinnati Enquirer’s “Young Artist Award” in 1984.  In 1982, at the age of 19, Nancy became the youngest member of the Cincinnati Art Club.

After meeting and studying with nationally renowned portrait artist Daniel Greene in 1985, Nancy began working in oils and pastels.  Inspired by his bold use of color and large pastel paintings, she began the time consuming and complex task of hand-making over ten thousand pastels, some of which were sold as portrait sets to Mr. Greene’s students in New York.

From 1988 to 1990, Nancy took time off from her painting to spend time exclusively with her two young children.  She returned to her studio with a new perspective and began painting “The Dana Series”.  “Ed: An American Artist” was the first painting in the series.  Although “Ed” was painted in a fairly traditional style, Nancy began surrounding the figure with symbolic – sometimes abstract objects each with its own meaning.  Nancy’s paintings became more surrealistic.  Later in the series, she transformed symbolic objects to symbolic figures, which were painted entirely from memory.  In this way, the artist could remain true to her mind’s original concepts and expressions, without imposing a model’s personality into the composition.

Nancy’s great grandmother on her father’s side was a full-blooded Cherokee.  Nancy shared her father’s interest in Native American culture and has produced many portraits and scenery paintings many of which were inspired by the black and white photographs of Edward S. Curtis and others.

It should be noted that Nancy accomplished much of her work while suffering with Multiple Sclerosis, a chronic condition that affects the central nervous system.  Nancy was featured in an article published in the Cincinnati Enquirer on November 24, 2004, for her work benefiting the local MS Center.

Nancy’s artwork is sold at:


The Purple Chandelier

649 York Street

Newport, Kentucky 41071