ARTIST STATEMENT

Whether it's physical, mental or emotional, I am curious about environments around the world. Abstraction is my inquiry into the nature of life. Bridging polarities: Lightness and Density; Joy and Sorrow; Flesh and Spirit; Good and Evil, I am exploring tensions between opposites and a still point.

The influence of poetic mysticism leads me to questions about man’s place in the universe. Through a process of layering mixed media and acrylic paint, I am re-creating an abstract language of color, shape and form. Luminous color is integral to my compositions. Using land, sky or the cosmos as a point of departure, I invent forms to convey feelings of energy and movement. Pulses, sounds, rhythms, colors and energy become the themes. I continually seek new ways to convey physical & spiritual sensations in paint. The paintings are put together in a dreamlike sequence to reinforce the reality of a metaphysical world. Forces of nature and the mysterious inner lives of human beings are themes that are constant in my work."

 -Anne Marchand

Anne Marchand was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. Growing up in a colorful environment of Spanish and French influences left a lasting impression on Anne's color sensibility. While traveling throughout the Southern United States, Anne gained a visual vocabulary of form and color in nature. She completed a Master of Fine Arts Degree Program at the University of Georgia. She has traveled widely in Europe, Central America, India and Thailand gaining inspiration from different cultural themes.

Anne uses a palette rich with saturated colors that gives her paintings an air of excitement, depth, and mystery. She continues to build on her knowledge of color theory. Luminosity and iridescence play a role in these evocative compositions. Applied textures contrast with passages of acrylic paint to enliven the surfaces of these bold abstract canvases. Her themes are diverse. She searches landscape, cosmoscape and abstract designs in nature for structure and movement in her compositions. Alongside her abstract paintings, Anne has developed a lively dialogue with the architecture of the city in a series of brightly hued and textured cityscape paintings. Vibrant hues in her oil paintings from urban rooftops create an optical vibration in the eye of the beholder. She derives inspiration by observing architectural shapes, contrasts of color temperatures, the play of light against dark, and the endless variety of nature's elemental forces.

Anne is recipient of an Artist Fellowship 2009 from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. She was honored as Liquitex Artist of the Month in November 2004. She was awarded a CAP/MEX EX Residency Grant in 2003 from the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation & the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities to teach a mural workshop in Culiacan, Mexico. In 2002, Anne was nominated for Excellence in Artistic Discipline in the distinguished DC Mayor's Arts Awards. She designed and won mural competitions notably in 2005 and 2001 through the DC Creates Public Art Program. In 2003, Anne's 34 ft. x 34 ft. mural at the Westminster Playground in the Shaw neighborhood of Washington, DC was included in a Visions Award from the Committee of 100 to the Westminster Neighborhood Association.

Anne's paintings are represented in corporate and private collections in the USA. She has exhibited extensively in the United States for the past 29 years and internationally in Mexico. Selected exhibitions include La Escuela de Arts Jose Limon in Culiacán, Mexico, Maryland Art Place, the Washington Project for the Arts/Corcoran Gallery of Art, the National Building Museum, the Federal Reserve Board and the Southeast Center for Contemporary Art. Her work has been shown in galleries in New York City, Santa Fe, Sedona, Washington, DC, Baltimore, Winston-Salem, Boca Raton, and Sonoma, CA. Marchand teaches private art classes and maintains an art studio in Washington, DC.

        Recent Awards:

        2011     6th 2011 Showcase Winner, ARTslant, New York

        2009     Artist Fellowship, DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities 2007, 2005, 2003, 1987

        2004     Liquitex Artist of the Month Award, November 2004

        2003     CAP/MEX EX Residency Grant in Culiacan, Mexico, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation & DCCAH  

       Best in Show Award, Foundry Gallery, “ DC Zone,” juried exhibition, Washington, DC

                     Visions Award, Westminster Neighborhood Association, Inclusion of Playground Mural, Committee of 100 on the Federal City, Washington, DC