Ann Willsie
Ann Willsie
Ann has spent most of her life painting in oils, both in studio and in the outdoors, en plein air. She has participated in and helped organize many plein air events throughout Canada during her career. Being primarily a landscape painter, Ann’s style of painting is very loose and impressionistic, characterized by thick oil paint, harmonious colour and visible brushstrokes. Most of her paintings depict the splendour of the natural landscape around us, both large-scale panoramic vistas as well as close-up trees, grasses and flowers.
Ann Willsie
BIOGRAPHY
Ann has spent most of her life painting in oils, both in studio and in the outdoors, en plein air. She has participated in and helped organize many plein air events throughout Canada during her career. Being primarily a landscape painter, Ann’s style of painting is very loose and impressionistic, characterized by thick oil paint, harmonious colour and visible brushstrokes. Most of her paintings depict the splendour of the natural landscape around us, both large-scale panoramic vistas as well as close-up trees, grasses and flowers.
Her work is shown in galleries in Ontario, Alberta and B.C., and held in collections around the world. She is an Associate Member of the Federation of Canadian Artists, Associate Member of the Oil Painters of America, and has won numerous awards in various FCA shows and Plein Air Festivals. Ann spends most of her time working and teaching at her studio in Lake Country, B.C.
ARTIST STATEMENT
There is something magical about our natural surroundings, be it trees, foliage, flowers, water; something that is hard to put down in words. I have always tried to capture that
magic when I paint my landscapes and florals.
How many of us have walked into a deep forest and been overcome by a strong sense of calmness and tranquility; a sense of wonder and respect. On a recent trip to Portugal I stood amid a grove of olive trees that were over a thousand years old. I wandered around them in silence. When I touched them, I felt their strength and history ripple through my hands. I could only imagine what they must have witnessed over the years, and the stories they would tell if they could only talk.
The rhythm and movement of nature is what I paint – the lineal personality of trees, the uniqueness and imperfection of flowers – They are so magnificent in their raw state, untouched by mankind. When I paint, I strive to pay tribute to that natural world that we sometimes forget exists.