Featured Artist : Nancy CunninghamSanibel Silkworks

My name is Nancy Cunningham, and I live in beautiful, southwest Florida. Having moved to Florida from Columbus, Ohio in 2002, I now have the time to explore my lifelong interest in art. First, I dabbled in acrylics and stained glass windows.  Initially, I took a class on surface design in Ohio, and I was hooked. There, I learned to mix my own dyes and paints with them using a wax resist. Two years ago, I discovered Dharma Trading online, and its products sparked my imagination.

I currently use Dye-Na-Flow paints and Pebeo resist to create my artwork. I found that the color of the paints are nearly as vivid as dyes, without the clean up. Dharma's silk pillows have been a big seller for me, as well as the charmeuse silk purses, camisoles, fans and scarves. For my framed art, I paint on a square piece of Dharma's Habotai silk. Then I mat, glass, and frame it, or stretch the silk over a standard artist's frame. I recently won third place in my first juried art exhibit with a large painting of three grouper and a lone octopus on silk, stretched over a frame. 

The inspiration for my work is all around me in Southwest Florida. I am an avid offshore "fisherperson." What I see while out on the water, you may well see in my art... lobsters, groupers, shells, etc. It's all about silk, the tropics, and vivid color. I love to watch the paint flow onto the silk and take on a life of its own!

Take a look and let your imagination run wild!