Nadja Peschke is a plein air watercolorist and educator based in Indianola, WA. She has a B.A. in Fine Arts from Principia College. She is an instructor for Bainbridge Artisan Resource Network and a returning Resident Artist at the IslandWood School. She is a multidisciplinary artist, spanning culinary and fine arts with a background as a classically trained ballet dancer.

The dedication to painting landscapes has taught Peschke the art of noticing subtleties over seasons, light and time. She’s willing to capture a view from many vantage points – from a client’s bathtub in Seabeck to a scenic perch on Hurricane Ridge in the mountain air. Plein air painting trains the eye to find layers in a view that cannot be replicated in the studio. And if that’s done successfully one painting can encourage an act of nature conservation.

Plein air is like terroir in the slow-art sense… a painting done on the beach with seawater holds a special feeling. This is Peschke’s attempt at linking her artistic process to her passion for the slow food movement. Food has been a lifelong passion which she has dedicated herself to as a seasonal strawberry farmer in Tromsø, Norway and as a sourdough baker at a farm-to-kitchen cafe in Poulsbo. At her core Peschke believes that art and food are keynotes to a thriving community. You can feel a painting done in the same air as it’s subject as much as you can taste the tart sweetness of a homegrown apricot jam.