Madison resident Nancy Small specializes in watercolor images.  She has painted individual homes and local architecture in Madison as well as in other locales. 

A resident of Madison since 1987, Nancy grew up in Glen Rock, N.J.  She attended college at U.N.C. in Greensboro and although she majored in math, Nancy always found time to take art classes.

She sees her late father, Hal Mapes, as the primary influence on her artistic development.  He was an insurance salesman by profession, but art was his passion.  While growing up, Nancy saw art as a normal part of home life.  She began taking art classes in elementary school, and continued throughout the rest of her school years. 

Nancy and her husband, Chip, married in 1980,  moved to Florham Park in 1983, and settled in Madison in 1987.  They are the parents of two daughters: Stacey, a college student, and Gillian, a senior at Madison High School.  Nancy has worked in the Children's Room of the Madison Public Library for nearly seven years

Nancy's current work with watercolors began in 1988 when her second daughter was an infant.  She enrolled in a watercolor course (her first work with that medium) at the Adult School of the Chathams and Madison,  and hasn't stopped since.

Early in the 1990s, Nancy and her father combined forces for an art show at the Chase Room of the Madison Public Library. Nancy's father, Hal, had painted scenes in Maine for many years, and Nancy had accumulated a collection of  Madison watercolors. The show was titled "Happy Father's Day from Maine to Madison."

Nancy was awarded the Madison Downtown Development Commission Annual Art Award in 1996, for artwork that "best depicts life in Madison, New Jersey." 

Nancy has enjoyed painting other subjects, such as the Warhol-style houshold items and floral arrangements seen in this index.  Her work can also be seen on notecards showing Madison's signature historic street lamps with hanging flower baskets (number 8 in this index), and a winter version showing the street lamps with wreaths (number 7).  The notecards are sold by Penny Press and the DDC.  Nancy also paints watercolors of peoples' homes by request.