Nancy Hilliard Joyce is a representational mixed-media artist whose work is often layered with bits of surreal overtones. She lives and creates out of her home studio located in Concord, NC. Hilliard Joyce’s paintings move through various themes, exploring each with vibrant color, gestural line, and at times with tactile bases of handmade paper. Her work is created with modeling paste, a range of synthetic polymer paints, various handmade papers and detailed with touches of oil paint. She will sometimes sand or wipe down layers to reveal under layers while building up other sections to create texture and depth; a process that may go on for weeks or end in just a day. Recurrent themes of flowers gone to seed, wheels, women with umbrellas, and the flight patterns of birds illuminate her fascination with the observation of circles and time. In her most current exploration, Hilliard Joyce journeys through the creation of abstracted and untrammeled garden settings peppered with botanical and audubon imagery. Within these mixed media pieces, you will see touches of gold leaf, elements of collage, and details of hand-painted images in both oils and acrylic.

At the age of sixteen, Hilliard Joyce was accepted into the Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities. She earned her BA in Art History from Wofford College and her MA in Art Education from the University of New Mexico. For over 10 years she lived in Manhattan and New Jersey as a working artist. From 2012 – 2017, she served on the Board of Trustees at the Asheville Art Museum and was an active member of the River Arts District Association in Asheville, NC. Today, Hilliard Joyce is a board member of The Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities Foundation as well as The Cabarrus Arts Council board. She is the art curator for boutique hotels located throughout the southeast and regularly produces large-scale commission work for public spaces. Hilliard Joyce is passionate about giving back to the environment, women, and children in need and uses her art as a platform to raise money for charity and non-profit organizations. Her work is appreciated and widely collected throughout the world in many homes, hotels, corporate offices, and airports. She is known as a contemporary, mixed-media artist with an Americana flair.