Nano Reid

Nano Reid was born in Drogheda, County Louth, north of Dublin city on the 1st of March in 1900. In 1920 she won a scholarship to the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art, followed in 1927 by a short period of study in Paris. She then moved on to the Central School of Art and Chelsea Polytechnic in London. On her return to Ireland in 1930, Reid soon became associated with the Society of Dublin Painters. Perhaps the greatest impact on her work came not from her formal teaching but from an exhibition of the work of the Belgian artist Marie Howett, which she saw in Dublin in 1934. She regarded highly the Belgian artist's focus on a direct and expressive use of paint.

Nano Reid painted a number of portraits as a means of earning a living, but her main interest was in the landscape. Like many other Irish artists, she went to the West of Ireland where she painted with Gerard Dillon and George Campbell. She also worked as a book illustrator and in 1946 was commissioned to paint a series of murals at a ballroom, which was in the headquarters of an Irish trade union. In 1950, together with Norah McGuinness, Nano Reid was selected to represent Ireland at the Venice Biennale.