Anne McAlear
Propeller Member Since 2022
Anne has been making art for over 50 years and has taken classes in many disciplines for ongoing technical exploration and occasional inspiration. Anne works in a variety of media and artistic styles. Currently her artistic focus is abstraction. In the past she has worked in printmaking, encaustic, oil, pastels, oil stick, and embroidery. With her abstract work, Anne has been influenced by the work of the American abstract expressionists, especially Rothko and Motherwell, and also the primitive cave paintings in France. Recently, Anne has been working with cold wax and oil, adding bits of collage and oil stick to explore colour and texture. And, she says, a little bit of chaos never hurts.
I feel the thing that makes my art unique is the process – it’s very back-and-forth, add-and-subtract. I put colour medium down on paper or panel and then remove some, and put some down again. This movement creates a unique impression on the surface that I can never predict. I imply a structure first, then introduce colour, often using asymmetry, disruption, and dissonance. It is my goal to try to recapture the freedom of making art, that uninhibited, childlike joy of mark making.
– Anne McAlear
l like to add different media. Whether its bits of collage or china marker, anything that makes the work feel complete. I’m allowing whatever is happening on the page or panel to happen. Often, hopefully, while working the “plan” is revealed. And sometimes it seems a disaster, and then the next moment it’s finished.
