Born in Italy and brought to Minnesota at eight months old, Nanci Fulmek has loved horses for as long as she can remember. Growing up in the city, the closest thing to having a horse of her own was drawing them, a habit that started on her bedroom walls at age two and never really stopped.
At 16, Nanci received her first commission that wasn’t from family or friends. A Thoroughbred racehorse owner spotted her doodling horses at work and asked her to draw his horse, Charlie. Word spread quickly through the racing world, and soon trainers, breeders, and owners were seeking her out, turning a part-time hobby into the beginning of a career.
After college, Nanci set art aside for a more conventional path in business. Years later, a colleague spotted one of her old racing portraits and asked if she still painted. Just like that, she was back at the easel. She began taking commissions in pastel, painting everything from horses to racing pigeons, and found herself once again pulled toward art full-time.
Wanting formal training in realism, Nanci took a position at Kelley Galleries in Woodbury, MN, to learn the business of selling art. There she met artist Jeffrey Larson, who told her about Atelier Lack. (Now, the Atelier Studio Program of Fine Art) in Minneapolis. She called that same day. After starting part-time, she was accepted into the full-time program, a class of just 18 students, in the fall of 2004, and completed the full five-year course of classical training in 2009. She now returns to The Atelier as the marketing instructor, teaching “The Art of Selling Your Art.”
As a lifelong equestrian who has owned and ridden several horses of her own, Nanci brings a rider’s intimate understanding of equine anatomy, movement, and temperament to every portrait, working from life whenever possible and shooting her own reference photos when she can’t.
Her work has been named MN Artist of the Year by TOSCA Magazine (2017) and featured in Fine Art Connoisseur, American Art Collector, and Western Art Collector, with repeat finalist recognition from the Art Renewal Center in the Animals category. Each holiday season, her limited-edition prints have become an annual tradition among collectors, selling out year after year.
Today, Nanci paints commissioned equine portraits spanning Thoroughbred racing, Arabians, Andalusians, and dressage, for collectors, breeders, and owners across the country and around the world.
Who would have thought a little girl drawing horses on her bedroom walls would grow into a full-time career as a portrait artist? It’s still the best job Nanci could imagine.
Check back often as new work is always updated regularly!
Thanks for visiting,
Nanci Fulmek