Last fall, artist Nanci France-Vaz completed a new painting, Ode to a Flower Child, as part of her latest series of works titled Bohemian Spirits. “This series is based on my childhood memory of peace and love,” France-Vaz explains. “I originally started this series because of the isolation I felt when the pandemic started. There was such awful news in your face every day of craziness, chaos, and violence. I needed to be in my own world at peace and with the sun shining again.” 
Ode to a Flower Child, oil on linen panel, 30 x 20"France-Vaz ’s inspiration for Ode to a Flower Child was based on the flower children of the early 1970s. “Their idea of make love, not war and John Lennon’s Imagine was a strong concept for me,” she says. “There is always a title and story in my head before beginning a painting. I find models who fit the role of my story and use my wardrobe of clothing from different styles and decades or the model’s own clothing. From there, I style the shoot, makeup, hair and do all the camera work and Photoshop myself.” After creating her composition, France-Vaz does drawings to eliminate distortions from the camera, and to get to know her subject and work out any problems that may arise. “I don’t start painting until I have the composition, design, values and drawing down,” she says.
Currently, France-Vaz is busy working on additional works for the Bohemian Spirits series, which will be published as a coffee-table book later this year. “On my easel right now is a work titled Flower Power 1970, which is part of the same series,” she shares. The book will include Ode to a Flower Child along with a short poem France-Vaz wrote to accompany the painting. “The poem is about the flower child of the ’70s reflecting back to a memory,” she explains. “The woman’s gaze is facing a window you can’t see, but you know is there because of the light streaming in from that side.” She adds that the woman’s dress colors are innocent and soft to reflect a poetic moment in time. The whole poem will be revealed when the book is released, but France-Vaz shares the following excerpt: “You lived your life like sunflowers, turning your head to shine in the sun.”
On her best advice for young, midcareer or mature emerging artists, France-Vaz says, “My advice is to never listen to anyone around you who tells you ‘you can’t.’ You don’t have to be young to be an artist. I started at 36 and never looked back. Have patience, check your ego at the door, and don’t ever quit. Keep dreaming and climbing up that mountain and you will get there!”
France-Vaz is represented by Lovetts Gallery in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Kristen Campo Fine Art Gallery in Rochester, New York. —
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