TAC Member Highlight: Romney Nesbitt

For Oklahoma artist Romney Nesbitt, the creative journey has always been intertwined with teaching, community, and an ever-deepening exploration of the inner world.

Long before exhibitions and portrait series, she was a teacher. For 22 years, she guided young artists in Jenks Public Schools, helping them discover the joy of self-expression. After retirement, she continues teaching watercolor at Arts302 in Broken Arrow.

“I enjoy sharing the joy of being creative with my students,” she says. Decades of teaching have shaped her perspective, deepened her patience, and sharpened her understanding of how people grow artistically.

Nesbitt’s commitment to supporting others extends beyond the classroom. In 2004 she became a certified creativity coach and later authored SECRETS FROM A CREATIVITY COACH (2008).  The techniques she taught—overcoming perfectionism, avoiding procrastination, nurturing creative momentum—still inform her own studio practice today.

Community and Collaboration as Catalysts

Learning, for Nesbitt, is a communal act. Museums and galleries are constant sources of inspiration, but collaboration has also played a powerful role. A recent year-long painting partnership with artist Sharon Allred became both a creative exchange and a friendship.

“We painted together weekly,” she recalls. “She taught me acrylic techniques, and I helped her learn to plan her time and work toward a goal.” Their shared discipline resulted in a productive, joyful body of work.

This collaboration continues with their collaborative exhibition Ancestors and Spirit Guides showing at Liggett Studio from December 5-18, 2025. Following that, the exhibition will travel to Northern Oklahoma College in Tonkawa, where the artists will give an artist talk and connect with students.

From Portraits to Watercolor to the Worlds Within

Nesbitt’s artistic style has evolved dramatically across decades. High school meant portraits; college brought watercolor; graduate school focused on still life and architecture. She also worked as a courtroom artist—an experience that refined her ability to capture likenesses quickly and sensitively.

Today, portraiture remains a meaningful part of her life. She has drawn more than 235 Oklahoma veterans as a personal way to say, “thank you for your service.”

Her roots run deep in Oklahoma. Raised in Oklahoma City and having lived in the state for most of her life, the landscape has become part of her artistic language.

“When I paint a landscape,” she says, “it almost always has a low horizon line and a big, beautiful cerulean blue sky—an Oklahoma sky.”

That sense of openness and expansiveness echoes through her work, whether she is rendering the real world or diving into more intuitive realms.

Experimentation plays a major role, but it’s less about technique and more about tuning in to the “interior landscapes” she’s become known for— paintings inspired by meditation and sensory deprivation floating sessions at H2Oasis in Tulsa. These works blend control and surrender, intention and intuition.

“These are images from my mind’s eye that arise during meditation or floating.” These works blend intuition with structure, discipline with imagination—an evolution guided by years of learning, practice, and curiosity.

Staying Inspired—and Staying in Motion

As a creativity coach, she learned and taught one essential truth: motivation follows action, not the other way around.

“You don’t have to be in the mood to create,” Nesbitt says. “Making art creates the feeling you’re looking for.”

To keep ideas flowing, she always maintains multiple works in progress. If one stalls, she moves to another, keeping creativity alive and stress low.

Her advice to aspiring artists is direct and empowering: “Act like you are your boss. Paint regularly. Don’t dissipate your creative energy by asking others what they think. You’re the artist—your time and energy are finite.”

Where It All Began

Nesbitt’s journey started simply—with a childhood fascination. “My mother said my favorite toy was a pencil,” she laughs. She spent hours watching a beatnik artist on PBS who taught shading and perspective. She asked for his art set for Christmas and completed every exercise.

At age 13, months of recovery from back surgery kept her drawing in bed—an experience she later connected with when she discovered photos of Frida Kahlo sketching from her own bed. Once she returned to school, she enrolled in art classes and never looked back. A BFA from William Woods University and a master’s in watercolor from The University of Tulsa followed, setting the stage for everything that came next.

Today, her work is a blend of experience, curiosity, gratitude, and the lifelong desire to understand both the world around her—and the world within.