I have been privileged with the opportunity to study closely with some of the finest painters teaching today, not only Steven Assael, but Nelson Shanks. We worked together in the studio, on the development of Studio Incamminati into the great school it has become, on several exhibitions and catalogs, and in his Art Students League class, where I worked as his teaching assistant for three years.
Sorting through memorabilia, I came across an interview published by American Artist magazine in 1970. Dick Goetz, who later served as best man in Nelson’s wedding to Leona, came to Nelson’s home Springdale in New Hope, Pennsylvania “to find out more about his background and painting methods.”
Nelson recounted a lesson from Pietro Annigoni, who pointed out “I simply had to decide what I felt, what I liked to do, and do that.”
Simple is not easy, we students at Studio Incamminati often sighed.