Anna Maria Painting

Most of my pieces are from life and all are done in a moment, long or short. They are not preconceived. I push the suggestiveness of the forms, either in front of me or from my imagination, aiming at creating powerful, vital imagery while not losing the fragility of the moment. I am drawn to a gestural neo-expressionistic vocabulary of thin lines against big bold colored forms and strokes. Many of pieces begin with traditional materials from my home—cloth, thread, my mother's tea towel. Color is printed, sewn, glued, felted. Paint is applied with my hands, sticks, cardboard, makeup sponges, potatoes—anything, to achieve an irregularity and rawness of line. Recent pieces enact the classic dance between the immediacy of material surface and the revelation of content. At first the form and line show up as an end in itself, and then the object or figure reveals itself, sometimes only for a moment, before it retreats back into the physicality of being marks on paper or felt on bone. I draw, paint and make things in my studio in the small town of Fairfax, in the San Francisco Bay Area. My art is influenced by my fascination for human gesture and my love for and experience in graphic design. I am currently Founding Partner and Creative Director of Ledyard Qvistgaard Design Office, a brand creation and package design, also in Fairfax.