Nancy Hammond: Four Decades of Chesapeake Bay Inspiration

For 40 years the Chesapeake Bay has been the wellspring of Nancy Hammond’s creativity. Although she was born and raised in upstate New York, the 74-year-old artist has spent most of her adult life along the Bay’s shoreline, living close to the water and sailing its channels aboard her sloop, Northern Spy. The Bay’s light, landscapes and maritime life are the consistent subjects that inform her art.

Hammond works across a range of media—silkscreen, lithograph, acrylics and cut paper among them—to portray scenes drawn from daily life on the Bay. Her portfolio includes images of children at play, loyal dogs, racing sailboats, lighthouses, working Bay watercraft and even views of the Naval Academy. Each piece reflects a personal connection to place and the rhythms of coastal living, and many pieces are available in her Annapolis gallery.

Her Eastern Shore studio, located by the Chester River, is a practical, lively workspace where multiple projects often share the floor. Crayons, acrylic paints, glue and colorful paper scraps are commonly scattered about as she moves between printed editions, one-of-a-kind cut-paper compositions and small accessory designs. In addition to prints and original artworks, Hammond applies her imagery to wearable and functional items—scarves, shirts, jewelry, place mats, etched-crystal bowls and neckties—bringing Bay-inspired design into everyday life.

One of her most engaging pieces, the cut-paper work Waterman’s Half Acre, stems from a simple, imaginative question: what would a Chesapeake Bay waterman choose for a comfortable retirement? “I was wondering what a waterman would answer if asked where and how he would retire,” Hammond says. “I figured he’d say, ‘Just give me a shack and a half-acre on the water so I can see the ships go by.’ ” From that gentle premise she developed a compact, detailed scene: a garden cottage, a small workboat, a shed and, crucially, an unobstructed view of the Bay.

Hammond chose cut paper for this piece because the medium lends itself to distilling forms into clean shapes and flat colors. “The idea was to whittle everything down to shape and flat color,” she explains. The resulting composition is both whimsical and inviting, a quiet narrative that suggests daily rituals—puttering in the shed, repainting a hull, sanding a tiller, checking the horizon through binoculars. It asks the viewer to imagine the simple satisfactions of a maritime life, and many longtime watermen would recognize those small pleasures.

Across her body of work, Hammond balances detailed observation with a pared-down visual language. Whether she’s creating a silkscreen print of a sailboat race or a delicate cut-paper scene of a shoreline cottage, her pieces emphasize strong silhouettes, rich color fields and the tactile qualities of handmade work. That combination of craft and clear composition gives her work broad appeal, attracting collectors who appreciate coastal subjects rendered with both skill and warmth.

Nancy Hammond Editions publishes her work exclusively, and she exhibits and sells pieces from her Annapolis gallery at 192 West St. in Annapolis. The gallery functions as a place to view originals, editioned prints and an array of Bay-inspired accessories that reflect Hammond’s longstanding relationship with the Chesapeake.

Her art continues to celebrate the people, vessels and everyday moments that make the Chesapeake Bay a distinct cultural landscape. Whether experienced in person at her gallery or through a print, Hammond’s images offer an affectionate, familiar view of the region she has called home for much of her life.

This article originally appeared in the August 2016 issue.