Nancy Kriebel

The painter Nancy Miller Kriebel died peacefully in her studio in Santa Fe New Mexico on November 25th, 2015, at the age of 79. She is remembered by sons Mark and Steven Sciscenti, sisters Dot Lingren and Jill Remington, their descendants, and by many dear friends. Nancy Kriebel was born in Boston and raised in Belmont, Massachusetts by parents Richard T. and Ruth M. Kriebel who, in Nancys words, encouraged my curiosity, taught me the importance of details, and to see beauty in all things. The family was a member of the First Church in Belmont Unitarian Universalist, and Nancy graduated Belmont High School Class of 1954. As a teenager, Nancy excelled at photography, earned honors as a Maine Girl Guide, and worked with migrant laborers in the American Friends Service Committee 1955 summer work camp. In 1958 she took her Baccalaureate from University of New Mexico, majoring in art and anthropology. Nancy worked at the Laboratory of New Mexico and, while raising 3 sons, did archaeological fieldwork in the Southwest alongside her husband, James V. Sciscenti. She wrote, Years of working on digs clarified my interest in cultures and art and the value of living in and appreciating nature. After a move back to Massachusetts in 1977, Nancy studied drawing and painting at The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston while managing a successful medical and scientific illustration business. Her youngest son Wade Sciscenti died in a horseback riding accident in 1979. Nancy was a founding member of the Arlington Center for the Arts. After taking her MFA from the University of Arizona in 1997, Nancy moved to Santa Fe, where she taught plein air painting workshops at the Georgia OKeeffe Museum, and art history at the Museum of Fine Arts. She was a member of the Plein Air Painters of New Mexico and the Rio Grande Art Association. Her exceptional oil paintings are in numerous private collections. Of her art, Nancy Kriebel wrote: I think of it as the archaeology of painting. In focusing on delicate, layered details, my vision grows to include the magical essence of place. The high color of the the cliffs and canyons of the southwest, the fantastic palette of reds, oranges and yellows that contrast with the sage and juniper greens, the cobalt blue skies and enormous white clouds are a colorists dream. Painting is a transformative, stabilizing, healing, calming process, and the painted landscapes become metaphors for the contrasts between nature and the culture we live in. An unveiling of Nancy Kriebels painting Pedernal at Sunrise and a celebration of her life will be held at the Arlington Center for the Arts, 41 Foster Street, Arlington, MA on May 1st 2016, at 4 p.m.