About Francesca Helena Nunez

Francesca began her art life drawing still lifes of toilet paper rolls and wildflower bouquets that her mom and grandma set up for her and her siblings for art appreciation. Of her three brother and one sister, Francesca showed the most interest in the subject. Around 2001 Francesca was given a workbook called “So You Thought You Couldn't Draw” by Sandra Angelo. She quickly began producing highly detailed portraits in graphite pencil, and later, colored pencil. During highschool, she participated in an art program, where she was introduced to acrylic paint and watercolor and began selling some of her work. After she graduated, she worked at Seaworld drawing live caricatures for four summers. During the next eight years she worked various jobs and created art on the side, taking several oil painting classes with teacher Ron Lemen. He taught her about art history, color theory, painting from live models, and the love of painting en plein air. Life interrupted and she worked in retail for several years, promising to return to art later. A sudden change of plan came about when she found herself out of work in 2018. She realized she had an innate call to continue creating no matter what else was going on in life. Beginning in 2019, she set up her instagram account and while she worked a new job, continued to grow artistically. Eventually, she was able to save up enough to start a website. During this time, she rekindled her love of drawing outside, and switched from using oils and other wet media to colored pencil and graphite pencil almost exclusively. The year of lockdowns in 2020 offered an opportunity to explore a different kind of artistic outlet: writing and illustrating a children's book. She was surprised and gratified to see her frequent practice had led to a final product: Otters on the Sea, which then led to another larger book in colored pencil: Daddy Emu. 2023 was a year full of change: meeting and marrying her husband and moving to Fallbrook and giving birth to a baby girl a year later. What hasn't changed is her drive to create and desire to encourage other creative people. Recently, she joined the Fallbrook Art Association to show her work in their gallery and be involved in the strong art community there. Francesca strongly believes in using where you are and using what you have to create and encourages other artists to do the same.  


"There may be people that have more talent than you, but there's no excuse for anyone to work harder than you do."
Derek Jeter
"Humility and discipline breed creativity."
Me
"Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men."
Colossians 3:23
An urgency to create, discipline to grow artistically, and a moral duty to strive for artistic excellence and honesty.