Local Artist Nancy Cheadle Honored in Bronxville

The following was submitted by Joyce Balint, Special Events and Art Exhibits coordinator for the Bronxville Women's Club.

The Bronxville Women's Club, located at 135 Midland Avenue, cordially invites the public to view the works of artist/illustrator Nancy Duncan Cheadle. 

Cheadle, a member of the Bronxville Women's Club, died this past June, and this exhibit will be a memorial to her talents. 

Many of the works will be available for sale and proceeds will go to animal and children's charities.  The exhibit will run from Nov. 1 through Nov. 30 and viewing will be from Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

A reception in her honor will be held at the club on Sunday, Nov. 4, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at no charge.

For further information, please visit bronxvillewomensclub.org  or call 914-337-3252.

Let Patch save you time. Get great local stories like this delivered right to your inbox or smartphone everyday with our free newsletter. Simple, fast sign-up here.

Nancy Duncan Cheadle. American Illustrator and painter was born in Long Beach, California on September 22, 1958.

When she was 18, at a summer Lodge in Montana, the Western artist Fred Fellows noticed some sketches she had done and urged her to pursue a career in the arts.

Nancy was accepted at the "Art Center College of Design" in Pasadena where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in 1988. One month later she moved to New York City.

In New York she soon met Elaine Duillo, the best romance book cover artist at the time. Duillo was impressed by Nancy's portfolio and introduced her to Lee Fishback, an agent who eagerly accepted to represent Nancy, based on the high quality of her work. That's how began Nancy's successful career as a romance book cover artist, spanning 14 years from 1992 to 2006 and involving over 180 original oil paintings with such publishers as HarperCollins' Harlequin and Silhouette Books.

The twelfth cover art produced by N. Cheadle in April '93 was for Kari Sutherland's romance novel, "Heartfire, Homefire."

The author was so moved that she wrote to Nancy. Part of the letter reads,

"I just wanted to tell you how much I love the cover you did for my Silhouette Romance. The hero and heroine are perfect and the colors are lovely... I'm interested in purchasing the painting... Again, I want to thank you for a beautiful cover bringing my hero and heroine to life."

As of August 2012, nineteen years later, Nancy's painting is still hanging in the author's living room. Kari Sutherland's eightieth novel is coming out in 2012.

On July 29, 1993 Nancy Cheadle was elected to Artist membership in the Society of Illustrators that recognizes talented new artists.

Another aspect of art, portraiture, had always been a passion for Nancy Cheadle. When at the Art Center in Pasadena she painted a portrait of Dr. H. Lynn Sheller, a past president of Fullerton College in Fullerton, CA. This was commissioned by the Fullerton College Scholarship Foundation and presented at a ceremony in his honor.

She was also commissioned by Walter Greshaw III of Mississippi to paint portraits of his two daughters. More recently Nancy did a portrait of Pierre Gazarian, her future husband and his two dogs, that won First Prize at the 2011 Beaux Arts Exhibit of the Bronxville Women's Club in Westchester.

Nancy Cheadle approached her artistic work with integrity, passion, and a rich imagination. She wanted her portraits to convey the depth and mystery of human nature that original paintings can best express. It took her long, endless hours of creative search until she felt she had achieved her goal.

What would have become undoubtedly a brilliant and long career as a portrait artist was brutally cut short by cancer on June 21, 2012 at the age of fifty three.

Follow Bronxville-Eastchester Patch on Facebook and Twitter today.