Three by Three: Guest Artists in Focus

QUESTION 2.    Watercolor can feel fragile and unforgiving. How do you use that delicacy to reinforce themes like softness, longing, or quiet tension rather than fighting against it?

• ANSWER 2.     My past works in mixed media were more frenzied, angular and color-saturated. These watercolor works, though still colorful, use a limited palette and are more controlled. Usually when people think of watercolors, they think of landscapes or nature-inspired subjects. My work aims to juxtapose that feeling of delicacy and softness of the media with a definitive air of power emanating from the subjects. The fragility of the watercolors reflects the feminine aspect, but imbued with bold color, heavy marks and compositions that speak to autonomy and empowerment. The women depicted are in a fermata, a state of pause where something of note has either just occurred or is about to. By choosing to focus solely on one [female] figure, the power lies completely with the subject, who is at once in control of her body and her surroundings, but also untamed.

Nina Bays
Painter

MEDIUM:    watercolor, mixed-media

BIO:    Nina Bays is a Los Angeles-based artist with a BFA in Illustration from the Rhode Island School of Design and a great love for all things paper. Her work has appeared in group exhibitions for Gallery 30 South, Rauschenberg Gallery (“Postcards for Democracy”), Cannibal Flower and Las Laguna Art Gallery. She is the proud illustrator of The Adventures of Trixie & Dinkidoo and author of Annabelle Frumbatt: A Gastronomically Ghastly Tale. In addition to her painting, Nina is an award-winning designer and creative director in the publishing industry and still subscribes to print magazines.

INSTAGRAM:    @NinaBaysArt

QUESTION 3.    You move daily between art direction, design systems, and personal painting. How does working within strict professional constraints sharpen—or challenge—your fine art instincts?

• ANSWER 3.     I embrace the interplay of the two disciplines, and I actually really appreciate having some constraints. They give me a starting point, and help to push my creativity. I approach design challenges with a fine art eye, understanding the rules (and preferences of clients) but also knowing how — and when — to break them for the best aesthetic result. I am very lucky to work in print media, so I have a tangible piece at the end of the day, just like a painting.

QUESTION 1.    Your figurative work often lives at a very small, intimate scale. What does working small allow you to access emotionally that larger formats don’t?

• ANSWER 1.    I love the immediate gratification I get from working on a small scale. The marks feel more intuitive and visceral, with less fear of making a “mistake.” With larger formats, there’s a tendency to labor over, to second guess, while these smaller formats are a more fluid conduit to raw emotion and spontaneity. The images themselves are snapshots of brief solo moments, and in turn, also more readily capture the emotions that flow into the work at the time it is created.

“Awoke”, 2025, Watercolors, 4x6 inches

All copyright and reproduction rights are reserved by Nina Bays.
Artwork may not be reproduced in any form without the artist's express written permission.

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"Aftermath”, 2025, Watercolors, 4x6 inches

"Tangled”, 2025, Watercolors, 4x6 inches