Nancy Stonington

1951 Asheville, North Carolina Education 1973 Yale University, New Haven, CT, Bachelor of Arts 1975 Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, PA and Rome, Italy, Masters of Fine Solo Exhibitions 2014 Stone Roberts, Hirschi & Adler Modern, New York, NY 2012 Stone Roberts: New York City Paintings, Museum of the City of New York, New York, NY 2009 Three Recent Paintings, Leigh Morse Fine Art, New York, NY 2009 Recent Paintings and Works on Paper, Leigh Morse Fine Art, 2007/08 Home Is Where One Starts: The Paintings and Drawings of Stone Roberts, Asheville Art Museum, Asheville, NC 2006 Stone Roberts, The Room, Stonington, CT 2004 Stone Roberts: Recent Paintings, Salander-O'Reilly Galleries, NY 1998 Stone Roberts: Recent Paintings, Salander-O'Reilly Galleries, NY 1993 Stone Roberts: Recent Paintings, Salander-O'Reilly Galleries, NY 1989 Centennial Exhibition, Walker Art Center, Woodberry Forest School, Virginia 1986 Recent Paintings, Robert Schoelkopf Gallery, New York, NY Group Exhibitions 2013 Duets: Art in Conversation, Hirschi & Adler Galleries, New York, NY 2012 Summer Selections, Hirschi & Adler Modern, New York, NY 2007 Flowers, Salander-O'Reilly Galleries, New York, NY Portraits, Salander-O'Reilly Galleries, New York, NY 2006 Living Painters, Salander-O'Reilly Galleries, New York, NY 2005 Lives/Still Lives, Salander-O'Reilly Galleries, New York, NY 2000 Art in America: 2000. 2000-2001, Siovic Republic 1999 Self Images, Galerie Simonne Stern, New Orleans, LA Western North Carolina Collects, Asheville Art Museum, Asheville, NC 1998 Still Sixteen, Still Life, Galerie Simonne Stern, New Orleans, LA 1996 Private Worlds: 200 Years of American Still Life Painting, Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, CO 1994 Flowers, Babcock Galleries, New York, NY The Figure, Salander-O'Reilly Galleries, New York, NY 1991 Contemporary Still Life Painting, Coe Kerr Gallery, New York, NY Exquisite Paintings, Orlando Museum of Art, Orlando, FL New Horizons in American Realism, The Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, MI American Narrative Painting and Sculpture: The 1980's (From the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art), Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn Harbor, NY 1989 Centennial Exhibition, Walker Art Center, Woodberry Forest School, Woodberry Forest, VA 1988 A New Generation of the 1980's: American Painters and Sculptors, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY Works on Paper, Robert Schoelkopf Gallery, New York 1987 A Just Temper Between Propensities, New Still Life and Landscape Paintings, Bayly Art Museum, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 1986 N. Y.C.: New York, Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE 1985 Contemporary American Still Life, One Penn Plaza, New York, NY 1984 Recent American Still Life Painting, Robert Schoelkopf Gallery, New York, NY Museum Collections: Metropolitan Museum of Fine Art

Still-life paintings work as part of the decor in nearly every type of space.

Still-life art, which includes work produced in media such as painting, photography, video and more, is a popular genre in Western art. However, the depiction of still life in color goes back to Ancient Egypt, where paintings on the interior walls of tombs portrayed the objects — such as food — that a person would take into the afterlife. Ancient Greek and Roman mosaics and pottery also often depicted food. Indeed, still-life paintings frequently feature food, flowers or man-made objects. By definition, still-life art represents anything that is considered inanimate.

During the Middle Ages, the still life genre was adapted by artists who illustrated religious manuscripts. A common theme of these paintings is the reminder that life is fleeting. This is especially true of vanitas, a kind of still life with roots in the Netherlands during the 17th century, which was built on themes such as death and decay and featured skulls and objects such as rotten fruit. In northern Europe during the 1600s, painters consulted botanical texts to accurately depict the flowers and plants that were the subject of their work.

Leonardo da Vinci’s penchant for observing phenomena in nature and filling notebooks with drawings and notes helped him improve as an artist of still-life paintings. Vincent van Gogh, an artist who made a couple of the most expensive paintings ever sold, carried out rich experiments with color over the course of painting hundreds of still lifes, and we can argue that Campbell’s Soup Cans (1961–62) by Andy Warhol counts as still-life art.

While early examples were primarily figurative, you can find still lifes that belong to different schools and styles of painting, such as Cubism, Impressionism and contemporary art.

As part of the wall decor in your living room, dining room or elsewhere, a still-life painting can look sophisticated alongside your well-curated decorative objects and can help set the mood in a space.

When shopping for a still-life painting, think about how it makes you feel and how the artist chose to represent its subject. When buying any art for your home, choose pieces that you connect with. If you’re shopping online, read the description of the work to learn about the artist and check the price and shipping information. Make sure that the works you choose complement or relate to your overall theme and furniture style. Artwork can either fit into your room’s color scheme or serve as an accent piece. Introduce new textures to a space by choosing an oil still-life painting.

On 1stDibs, find a collection of still-life paintings in a wide range of styles and subject matter.