Nan Jane Sheets was
born in Illinois. She graduated from Valparaiso University with
a degree in pharmacy. She lived in Utah for a short time before
marrying and moving to Oklahoma, settling in Oklahoma City in
1914. She had an innate desire to paint and had begun some study
prior to her marriage. She spent summers of 1919 to 1923
studying art at the Broadmoor Art Academy in Colorado Springs,
and in 1923 went to Taos, New Mexico to study with Nellie Knopf
and later Gloucester, Massachusetts for tutelage from Hugh
Breckenridge. From 1935 to 1943, she was a State Director of the
Federal Arts Project of the Works Progress Administration. She
is credited with establishing Oklahoma City’s art museum; she
served as its director for more than 50 years, retiring in 1964.
She
was a member of the Art League of Oklahoma City; Oklahoma Art
Association; Southern States Art League; National Association of
Women Painters and Sculptors, New York City; American Federation
of Arts, Washington, D.C.; North Shore Art Association.