June Artist of the Month
Meet Nan Rumpf
Nan Rumpf grew up in Burlington, Iowa on the banks of the Mississippi River in the days before helicopter parents existed. While she would not trade her childhood full of pastoral freedom, she had no formal introduction to the art world. She did however have a blackboard in her kitchen. She recalls, “I repeatedly drew horse’s heads on the blackboard because I wanted my parents to buy me a horse.” They did not, but this was the start of Rumpf’s esteemed art career.
After graduating from college Rumpf moved to Belmont, MA where her brother was living. She began to fall in love with New England and also with her husband, David. She and David worked at the Fernald School in behavior modification. They both believe that their success in parenting their two children was enhanced by the principle of rewarding positive behaviors.
Rumpf’s art career began anew when her children were at the Hills and Falls Nursery School in Newton. In charge of fundraising, she decided to organize puppet making and a puppet show. This undertaking was a great success and Nan, with her husband and a friend, began organizing performances for many local nursery and elementary schools and libraries. They provided live music and sound effects and, as the narrator, Rumpf cleverly embraced audience involvement. She sought out folk tales with many major characters and had children do interpretive movement. As artistic director and art instructor, Nan was in demand to do workshops training parents for over ten years.
When this part of her career ended, Rumpf continued to create. She learned a great deal from books on drawing that she took out of the library and was inspired to write and illustrate and write a book of her own. In 1966, after much hard work, her book Puppets and Masks: Stagecraft and Storytelling was published by Davis Publications and was in print for 20 years. Puppetry, Rumpf says, was “my back door into the art world.”
One of the first painting classes that she took was taught by Jane Goldman at Wellesley College. This is where Nan’s love of water color began as she was delighted by the images she could create using the flow of water and color. Her training has consisted of multiple workshops and her main influencer is Susan Swinand. Other artist she has studied with are Charles Reid, Paul George, Miles Batt and Cheng Khee Chee. She loves both representational and abstract painting and has mastered Chinese Brush Painting.
Nan has also become a very popular teacher of art. She currently teaches in Needham, at the Tolles Parsons Center in Wellesley, the New Art Center in Newton and privately from her home. With the pandemic closing down studios, Rumpf has kept very busy learning how to teach by Zoom. She has also taught at the Danforth Museum School, Framingham State University, The Bancroft School, Medfield High School and the Concord Art Association. Recently she has taught at the Wellesley Greenhouses (Friend’s Horticulture Society), Wayland and Bedford as well as at Elm Bank Reservation (Mass Horticultural Society). She has given art talks and demos for many art groups in New England.
Her paintings have been exhibited at The DeCordova Musem School Gallery, The Danforth Museum, The Art Complex Museum in Duxbury, The Attleboro Arts Museum, The Wellesley Free Library (First Place Award), The Center for the Arts in Natick, Art on the Common in Needham (First Place Award), The Clinton Art Show (Best in Show), Post Road Art (First Place Award in the Abstract Show), The Wellesley Community Center (Margaret Fitzwilliam Award for Excellence in Watercolor), the New England Watercolor Society Show in Cotuit (Woodruff Art Center Award) and her painting Soaring was awarded by George Nick in the Concord Art’s Juried Members Show.
Her series “Iceland Paintings” have been exhibited at The Wellesley Free Library and the Newton Library. She has also exhibited artwork with Sally Meding of the WSA. Rumpf is an active member of the Wellesley Society of Artists and The Concord Art Association. She is a Signature Member of The New England Watercolor Society.
Rumpf has influenced so many through her love of art and her ability to teach and inspire. Each of her classes is taught based on one of the elements and principles of art. She will choose one element such as Value on which to base her assignment and then helps students to develop these skills. What Rumpf loves most about painting is “the ability to get lost… to enter another world.”