Her parents were persuaded by their parish priest, Dr Segrave, to allow Nano Reid to attend the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin.
Whilst there, she attended to the Académie de la Grande Chaumière for a few months, but the experience doesn't appear to have had an influence on her painting style.
Like other painters of the period, such as Paul Henry, she travelled to the west of Ireland for painting inspiration with her early work showing the landscapes, local people and fisherman of the area.
This was the first time Irish artists participated in this international exhibition, which has been supported by the government of Ireland since then through a range of departments and agencies responsible for foreign affairs, arts and culture.
[citation needed] The Arts Council of Northern Ireland's Chichester Street Gallery, Belfast was the venue for a collection of forty solo works in the summer of 1964.