Nesbitt depicted many everyday subjects: studio interiors, articles of clothing, piles of shoes, fruits and vegetables, and his dog, a Rottweiler named Eric. Despite such variety, Nesbitt was best known for his images of irises, roses, lilies, and other flowers, which he often depicted in close-ups so that their petals seemed to fill the canvas. In 1980 the United States Postal Service even issued four stamps based on Nesbitt's floral paintings. Dramatic, implicitly sexual, and a little ominous, they earned the artist popularity with the general public that tended to overshadow his reputation within the art world.