Iowa couple merge art and travel

ABOVE: One of Nancy Hoffman’s more recent watercolor paintings, depicting the Sylvania Park Bandshell in Fairmont. This painting and 40 more will be exhibited until Sept. 26 at the Red Rock Center. For the Arts in Fairmont.

FAIRMONT — A new artist is hanging up her work on the walls of the Red Rock Center for the Arts, preparing to show more than 40 pieces of watercolor paintings. Des Moines native, traveler and watercolor artist Nancy Hoffman–with the help of her husband Bob Hoffman– has been collecting photos from their traveling destinations and bringing them to life with the vibrant colors of paint. As they are drawing more attention from the Fairmont community, the Hoffmans aspire to encourage inspiration and teach spectators about their diverse experiences around the world.

Before becoming a full-time artist, Nancy Hoffman was employed at the University of Northwestern Iowa. Because of the demanding schedule of her position at the college, she wasn’t able to indulge in leisure time to paint as often as she liked. After she retired from her career in education, time allowed her to spend more doing what she loved-making art and traveling to numerous countries.

“I’ve been off-and-on with art my whole life,” she said, “but I’ve always been interested in art. After I retired, I finally got into it more.”

Currently, Hoffman has done art for about five years, ever since she retired from her job at the college. Over that time she has experimented with mediums such as oil paint and pencil sketching. However, she said she naturally gravitates towards the watercolor variety since she believes it’s more universal and entertaining for her.

“Oil paint is so high maintenance,” she said.

While oil paint is an adequate option for its blending-ability, durability, and slow drying time, the paint is often remarked to be difficult and demanding for beginner artists. Hoffman noted that watercolor painting is very flexible and versatile.

“Watercolor is like a science experiment,” she laughed.

Many watercolor painters often use an assortment of techniques including wet-paint-on-wet-canvas, dry-on-dry, wet-on-dry, dry-on-wet, and more. Hoffman stated that she uses these techniques in her landscape paintings, capturing different textures and saturations.

Many of her painting subjects are inspired by her husband’s photographs, which are captured while the couple travels to different nations. Hoffman noted that everywhere they go, especially new places, they strive to get a photo of everything there is to see. Some of their most notable locations include China, Hong Kong, Germany, Denmark and many other locations covering the Asian and European continents.

“Biking around the world is such a wonderful pastime,” Hoffman said, “Coastal Georgia is such an artistic landmark.”

Hoffman and her husband created their website Hoffman Adventures, with travel photos, paintings, postcards, a print shop and more. The couple have owned their website domain for a long time, and finally made use of it by documenting their experiences and their talents. The two merged each other’s talents on one website because they work closely together, often depending on one another to complete their work.

Hoffman said that she recognizes her husband Bob not only as her source of inspiration with his photos but as her source of motivation as well. The two often check in on each other’s progress and hold each other accountable to keep producing their art and photos from each trip experience.

“He’ll always get me a photo to paint. We motivate each other. If I was alone, I would have probably put this all away,” she said.

The Hoffmans have taken many pictures of Fairmont, which Nancy has transferred to watercolor paintings. These paintings will be on display at the Red Rock Center this month for area residents to spectate. Visitors may also be able to spot one of their favored places in Fairmont at the art exhibit.

“It’ll be nice to pass on inspiration, it’s a good opportunity for a lot of eyes [to see my work],” said Hoffman.

For future agenda, Hoffman explained there are no current plans for the next travel location or a new painting. However, she mentioned she and her husband Bob will be traveling to Arizona very soon to visit family, which may offer opportunities to capture scenes of the southwestern state.

Hoffman’s watercolor paintings will be exhibited at the Red Rock Center for the Arts located on Blue Earth Avenue in Fairmont. The paintings will remain hung until Sept. 26th.