ANNE CONNELL

"I am not a copyist. Though I have claimed the work of late-medieval masters as my primary subject matter, it is merely a point of departure for a working process that is as intuitive as it is intellectual. My paintings are indisputably modern. The attainment of beauty is always an objective; I believe that beauty, in and of itself, has consequence. My pictures are dense, allusive, cerebral, intimate; their small size demands a necessary physical proximity in order to read them. I want the viewer to be drawn in, to be compelled to linger. Each painting presents a sort of enigma, an obscure narrative, a collage-like recombination of images whose exegesis requires more than half a minute and more than one look."

Having recently returned from a year in Italy on a Fulbright Scholarship, Oregon painter Anne Connell creates meticulous, historically referenced oil paintings.  The artist employs notable techniques on her surfaces that are reminiscent of the decorative motifs and imagery of the Renaissance.  These include layered oil pigments and gesso incised with etching needles, and contrasting gold-leaf applications.  Connell's paintings illuminate small mysteries of the past with precise and detailed patterns, script and/or precious objects.

Anne Connell attended the University of Colorado, Boulder, from 1978-1980 where she was a student of Robert Ecker.  She received a Master of Fine Art degree from the University of Michigan School of Art in 1984.  Connell also has studied extensively in Italy, spending a year in Rome in 1997 and this past year in Florence.  In addition to exhibiting extensively, Connell has received numerous honors including a Fulbright Scholarship, a residency at The MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, NH, a residency at the Ucross Foundation in Clearmont, WY, a grant from the Regional Arts and Culture Council in Portland, OR, and a fellowship from the Oregon Arts Commission.