74-year-old artist paints what she eats: fruits and vegetables

Dolores Nast draws inspiration from food

Dolores Nast exclusively paints fruits and vegetables. The walls of her downtown Las Vegas home are covered with canvasses of melons and peppers and squash, often nestled together, filling the frame. Some are rendered in vibrant impasto, with thick strokes of paint slathered on with a painting knife. Others are composed of innumerable points or distinct fine lines made with a delicate brush. Some subjects, such as bananas, are familiar. Some are more exotic, like her tall canvas of Japanese Shimeji mushrooms.

"You can tell I just liked food," the 74-year-old artist said.

In her studio, she shelves books titled "Kitchen Garden A to Z" and "Encyclopedia of Foods" next to books on Impressionism and Georgia O'Keefe.

They are all for inspiration. She also clips photos of foods from magazines and newspapers, but for the most part, Nast said, she paints from real life.

"I buy a lot of food and then I eat it and paint it. I believe in getting my money's worth," she said.

She uses a rich, varied and not always completely natural palette.

On one wall of her studio hangs a painting of a halved red onion, looking as delicate as a sea shell, done in white, deep purple and lavender.

Another thing Nast collects is newspaper clippings on male and female record setters for longevity, along with studies on aging. She hopes to live to 120, she said.

"I'm not elderly yet, I'm only 74," she quipped.

Some of her paintings she sells; others she likes too much. She sells one or two a year, she said -- only enough to cover the cost of acrylics and canvas and occasionally shipping a painting to be shown somewhere. She would love to sell more one day and perhaps make enough to hire an assistant who can deal with all her slides and that pesky computer.

Nast studied art in high school, but did drafting work for most of her career -- "back when draftsmen worked on paper, not computers," Nast said. Originally from Buffalo, N.Y., she moved to Las Vegas with her husband in 1955 and worked in drafting for Las Vegas public works. Over the course of a long career, she even worked for a time at the Nevada Test Site, seeing the last of the above-ground nuclear tests. She became a surveyor while living in Flint, Mich., as an engineer designing streets and as a land surveyor. On returning to Las Vegas in 1977, Nast returned to public works.

Later, Nast taught civil drafting, surveying and descriptive geometry from 1992 to 2000 at what was then the CCSN, now CSN. Eventually, however, the college wanted educators who could teach the new computer drafting technology. Though she keeps one in her studio, Nast said her relationship to computers remains extremely casual to this day.

It wasn't until the 1980s, while pursuing her master's of business administration at UNLV, that she turned her capacity for precision to painting again. Devoting energy to a long dormant passion, her work improved quickly. Nast said her teachers Tom Holder and Bill Leaf began encouraging her to show her work before long.

Holder is now head of drawing and painting in the fine arts department at UNLV and said he is pleased his former student is receiving recognition for her paintings.

"She found an area of interest for herself in still lifes and she just took off," said Holder.

Since 1998, she has had pieces in exhibitions at the Las Vegas Art Museum, the City Hall Bridge Gallery and venues across the country. She's had solo shows all over Nevada, from Fallon to Reno and Carson City, many in Las Vegas -- and one solo show at Rogue Community College in Grant's Pass, Ore., this year. Nast also has been the recipient of seven Nevada Jackpot grants.

Now, she has Pictorial Space, a 35-piece solo show up in Common Area One of the Arts Factory, 107 E. Charleston Blvd., running through Nov. 28. In her artist statement, she describes this collection as a meditation on the link between food and ancestry, stretching back to the beginning of time.

This is shaping up to be a fine year for Nast, who belongs to the Las Vegas Artists Guild and the Las Vegas Art Museum. After her show at the Arts Factory, she will show at the Whitney Gallery, followed by shows at the CSN Fine Arts Gallery and the Winchester Cultural Center.

Her most recent work, "Bountiful Altar," is for a juried show at Left of Center Gallery that will feature works incorporating altars. Like all her paintings, the piece features produce -- this time adorning a small stand.

"I didn't realize how difficult it was to incorporate food with an altar," Nast said.

Holder was willing to muse on Nast's focus on the edible.

"Sometimes an artist just finds a niche and they don't get bored with it because they find endless variety in the subject matter," he said.

For more information on Nast, go to www.myspace.com/doloresnast.

For more information on the Arts Factory, call 383-3133 or go to www.theartsfactory.com.