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 Individual Artist Fellowship 2007 and 2005 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 Culiacán, Mexico. In 2002, Anne was nominated for Excellence in Artistic Discipline in the distinguished DC Mayor’s Arts Awards. She designed and won two mural competitions in 2005 and 2001 through the DC Creates Public Art Program. In 2003, Anne’s 33’ x 35’ 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, the Southeast Center for Contemporary Art, and the High Museum of 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.

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.”

 

Images shown:  Crescent & Kindled Flame.  Text from the artist’s website at www.annemarchand.com.

National Gallery of Art
Family Programs

Balancing Act
Saturdays, January 17, 24, and 31
Morning session: 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Afternoon session: 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
ages 9–12
Advance registration required; Registration begins January 7

Investigate Edgar Degas’ wax sculptures of dancers and horses, and learn how to construct your own sculpture using a wire armature and clay. Wednesday, January 7, registration will be available online.
Cutting into Color
Sundays, January 18, 25, February 1, 8, 15, 22, and March 1, and 8
1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
ages 6–8
Advance registration required; Registration begins January 7

Explore color, line, and shape in Henri Matisse’s cutouts. Then experiment with colorful papers to create your own collage. Wednesday, January 7, registration will be available online.

 
Cory Oberndorfer: Flavor of the Month
 
The Pink Line Project and Cultural Development Corporation
invite you to attend the opening reception:
 
Friday, January 9
6 to 10 pm
@ Flashpoint Gallery
916 G Street, NW
 
Music: All Good Funk Alliance
DC Roller Girls
Your favorite derby candy, junk food, and refreshments.
 
Opening reception generously supported by Scion.
The Gallery at Flashpoint is sponsored by the Abrams Family Foundation, Tim Hyde and other generous sponsors. Hotel Helix is Flashpoint’s 2008-2009 Hotel Partner. Barefoot Wine is Flashpoint’s 2008-2009 Wine Partner.