Nancy Byrtus is a mixed media painter who lives and works on the traditional xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) lands in Vancouver, Canada. Her background includes the conservation of historic buildings (MA Heritage Conservation) and employment at museums and galleries in Canada and the US. In 2020, she completed her studies in painting at the Emily Carr University of Art + Design and fulfilled two terms on the Acquisitions and Public Art Committees at the Burnaby Art Gallery in 2025.

As an emerging artist, Nancy is drawn to changes in the environment, whether they bring courses of new spring growth, patterns of light, movement of water, or the diversity of plant life that grows after a fire. 

To record images in an environmentally-sensitive way, Nancy is experimenting with a variety of plant and mineral-based pigments. Most recently she incorporated hand-ground charcoal from wildfires in the Similkameen Valley and Jasper into a number of her works. Material exploration has been a constant in her work both with historic buildings and as an artist. She can be found working happily in her studio at Alliance Française in Vancouver.