Nancy Allen is a retired graphic designer and colored pencil artist living in La Grande, Oregon. Her main interest is equine portraiture and the use of colored pencil as a fine art medium and she continues to do selected graphic design work for local clients.

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Horses have been the main source of inspiration for her throughout her career and she mainly worked in pen and ink until a friend convinced her to try working with colored pencils about 15 years ago and since then it has become her main medium of expression in the realist art world.

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Nancy enjoys portraying horses in unusual poses and angles, regardless of breed or age, if she can capture the personality of the subject, their intelligence, humor and knowledge.

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Nancy resides with her husband, Matt, a radiologist, on a small farm in Union County, growing cherries and alfalfa hay in Northwest Eastern Oregon at the foot of Mt. Emily, a local rural landmark, with two horses, two dogs and six cats.

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Her work has recently been shown at the Salmagundi Club in New York (one of the oldest art organizations in America) with the American Artists Professional League, the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, KY, The Academy of Realist Art in Toronto Canada, The Aiken Center for the Arts in South Carolina, Emerald Downs Racetrack in Auburn, Washington, and was named Best in Show at the 40th Annual Wallowa Valley Festival of Arts in Joseph, Oregon, she received second place and the Jean G. Barclay Memorial Award for Pastel and Drawing in the 2024 Equine Art Show for the Washington Thoroughbred Association, as well as a Semi-Finalist & Finalist in the 2022/2023 Art Renewal Center’s 16th Annual International Salon and The Almenara Art Prize 2024 Online Exhibition featuring works from 65 different countries, and in the 2024 International Guile of Realism Online Show.

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Nancy also enjoys contributing her work to horse rescue nonprofits with a special attachment to Fletcher Farms in Amarillo, Texas, a rescue facility for Belgian Draft Horses. She also takes on limited graphic design projects in the rural area she lives in and is currently a Board Member for the American Artists Professional League as Graphics Director and collaborates with their quarterly newsletter for artist members.​

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Nancy's work has been published in Horse Illustrated Magazine, Horses in Art Magazine in which she won the international cover competition, Art Horse Magazine’s Ex Arte Equinus and the 16th International Art Renewal Center's Salon Book International Realism.

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She is a juried member of the Academy of Equine Artists, the International Guild of Realism, the American Artists Professional League and a former Signature member of the Colored Pencil Society of America and CPSA's ExploreThis!

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Bits and Pieces

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Nancy was accepted into Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA at age 17 (then the #1 design school in the US) through the typical portfolio process required at the time. She did not attend due to her parent’s divorce and the death of her mother.

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Competed on a Hawaiian crew in the 1985 Molokai Channel Outrigger Canoe Race, a 38+ mile open ocean paddling race in the Ka'iwi Channel starting at Kawakiu Bay on Moloka'i's west side to Honolulu’s Waikiki Beach.

Her California crew was California Outrigger Canoe Champion, six-woman crew, four years running.

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Nancy was Hawaii State Cycling Road Race and Time Trial Champion 1986 to 1989 and Best All-Round Women’s Champion four years in a row. She was a two-time National Cycling Championship participant and nationally ranked in the US in the Individual Time Trial, a one time US Olympic Trials Road Racing participant, and a one-time US National Mountain Bike Champion, 35+ Division.

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She is also a student of the Latin language.