Anne Sutherland

Anne Sutherland is a professional artist, entrepreneur and teacher. She grew up in the rural community of Roxbury, NY, in the Catskill Mountains, influenced by the beauty of mountains and nature around her. A love of drawing, dance and music dominated her childhood. A broad educational career began in the public schools where she taught at the elementary level with a degree in Elementary Education and music. The right art teacher came along in 1971; Anne began oil painting during summer breaks with Jeanne Hastings in Lake George, learning a color theory she still uses today. Raising a family and painting for art shows, Anne explored watercolor and pastels using the same color theory to develop her paintings. In 1983, Anne began a small business teaching drawing and painting to children. It grew into a Thomson Avenue factory building with classes and art store for adults and children with a wide range of mediums, and continued under different ownership for over 20 years. While there, she gained from the faculty who taught drawing, painting, photography and clay. En pleinaire painting was a major part of Anne’s art training during a two-year family stay in Finland and later on Nantucket Island. The most valuable art experience was sketching on the streets of Nantucket, teaching visitors how to use a pencil to capture a complex scene. Sketching Tours of Nantucket and Sketching Tours of Paris followed. A house portrait Your House…Your Notecards business gave Anne additional perspective skills. Anne combined sketching skills and color theory to develop her work while painting enplein aire. Years of living in the close-knit Nantucket community of artists gave further exposure to numerous techniques with weekly critiques and Artist Association Workshops. After almost 20 years on Nantucket, she and husband Jim Sutherland decided it was time to retire to an area closer to family. Anne works in a renovated carriage house behind their house in the Village of Greenwich.

Artist Statement

Abstraction and color are the artistic elements which allow me to leave the subject somewhat behind and paint more intuitively. Once my composition is loosely defined, editing to find it’s essence becomes most important…keeping some of the familiar while pushing the painting toward the unknown, unfamiliar shapes. Responding to the shapes and using color to guide me is when the real painting conversation begins.