Biography

Jeff Nisbet is an artist and full time visual arts faculty at The Rivers School in Weston, Massachusetts. He works mostly within the purview of painting and drawing but is also interested in creating installations. His work has been shown in Hawaii, California, Texas, and Massachusetts, and is in private collections in the United States and Canada.

Born in Canada, having lived in Scotland and Spain, and growing up in Texas, Nisbet brings a worldly curiosity to his artistic practice. Working mostly in abstraction, Nisbet draws inspiration from a myriad of sources, from Zen Buddhist koans to the landscape to Rothko’s color field pursuits to Thich Nhat Hanh’s book on Silence. Currently, his new body of work, Meditation Series, serves as a mindfulness practice, and his goal is to inspire the viewers to search for and pause in moments of stillness. In today’s ever-shifting world, particularly in the realm of geopolitics, the AI apocalypse, and pervasive social media, the intention of this body of work is to inspire an opportunity to be calm and quiet. Nisbet encourages the viewer to disconnect and be present with the work, even for just a moment.

Additionally, Nisbet finds inspiration in both the simplicity and grandeur of nature, whether a single flower or a vast landscape. By oscillating between abstraction and expression, he enjoys the challenges of distilling natural subjects into expressive moments or minimal abstract compositions. Lately, Nisbet has been drawn to the play of shadows cast from white orchids and snapdragons as well as the austerity of the succulent plant. The enduring power of the orchid has been used as a natural stress reliever throughout history, while the snapdragon and succulent both symbolize resilience because of their ability to grow in difficult terrains. The central themes of resilience and relieving stress are welcome in today’s climate.

Nisbet earned his Masters of Art Education at Boston University, focusing his research on using broad themes of identity to engage student voice in the secondary art classroom. He earned his Bachelors of Fine Arts in drawing and painting with distinction from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, studying under Jason Willome and Debra Drexler.

Nisbet currently lives with his wife, Kayla, and three children in Franklin, MA where he is an active member of the Franklin Arts Association.