Anne Provost - BIO
Anne Provost grew up in Springfield, Massachusetts. She has been oil painting since the age of eight, a talent she inherited from her mother, Grace. Her formal education started in Catholic grammer school, to four years at Cathedral High where she participated in a group project, creating a mosaic of the JFK quote, 'God's work on Earth must truly be our own.', that was given to Ted Kennedy. She received a scholarship and began study at Westfield State College. In 1976 Anne took the AmericaPass bus tour across the USA for the Bicentennial, exploring life and finding herself creating art along the way as gifts and barter. Her favorite medium is oils but she did a series of dot drawings in 1977-78 after returning to the east coast. She won an Honorable Mention for the 'Circus Hand' in an all women show in Northhamton,MA.. Anne went on to further her education with a BEOG (Basic Education Opportunity Grant) and received an Associates Degree in Arts and Science with Honors at Holyoke Community College (1981) all the while she was becoming a single parent. Her love of figure drawing increased after modeling for the class the first year while pregnant.
Anne grew up close to her maternal grandfather who was a gardener which inspired her to volunteer at Laughing Brook Wildlife Sanctuary- Audubon Center, original home of Thorton Burgess, writer of the children's book with Peter Rabbit and Old Mother West Wind. Inspiration was everywhere! In gratitude she donated the painting 'Misty Mountain Morning', an elk resting near a hot spring, which was framed with a custom birch sapling frame her father, Joseph, made for it. Once again, Anne adventured across the USA, with her daughter in tow, this time on the Green Tortoise Bus, an alternative travel style. Family life began with more focus on organic gardening and self-sufficiency while still maintaining time to paint and draw with a little more focus on portraits.
Most of Anne's work has focused on a spiritual nature with a style similar to Salvador Dali with a twist of Michelangelo. Blending supernatural into the realistic to awaken those souls viewing to the Oneness of All , separation is only in the mind and an individual's 'perspective'. In 1990 Anne traveled to India with her husband and youngest son to present the portrait Sathya Sai Baba Divine to Swami, thus began the first pilgrimage. From 1995-2000 Anne and part of her family lived in India near the ashrams of Sathya Sai Baba, the subject of her exploration with pastels. The experiences were life changing. While delivering two commissioned art pieces to a devotee in Russia, Anne painted a seven foot oil portrait of Sathya Sai Baba for the Moscow Center.
In 2000, Anne separated from her family to live with her sisters and mother on Maui, Hawai'i, getting exposed to the extensive love of the arts throughout the islands and having more computer and internet accessibility, began creating detailed portraits of famous people and entering contests. Her confidence grew when all three portraits made it into the 3Americas traveling art show on the east coast from 2001-03. The hand-painted portraits of 'Val Kilmer', 'Willie Nelson' and 'Sandra' (Anne's niece) are photo-realistic, so look closely. Other colorful characters , such as the talented Willie K, native Hawai'ian musician and voice extraordinaire, became Anne's focus of creating collage portraits depicting his lyrics. The golden opportunity to live and caretake land near George Harrison's estate, was inspiration to start the Beatles series. 'George Harrison and the Beatles' and 'John Lennon -Give Peace A Chance' were published in 'Beatles Artwork-Fantastic New Art of the Fab Four' by Boxigami books.
In 2005, Anne's granddaughter was born so travel and family became more of her focus, continuing to plant organic gardens and do an occasional mural. She worked on a community garden design art piece, 'The Rainbow Tribal Peace Garden', which incorporated 'Rainbow Buddha Mandala' watercolor painting for the amphitheater portion. More inspiration from whale watches on the ocean and surfing friends created the 'Jawz Wave' series, while a favorite rose photo from Anne's sister's collection was subject to three fanciful paintings. She is now painting flowers from the thousands of personal photos and matching them with spiritual meanings from the book by The Mother, 'Flowers and Their Messages'.
'Surfing Dolphin' banner was backdrop for the 'Ocean of Healing' festival in Paia town and later used in 2010 when Anne participated in SOURCE Maui, an interactive arts festival held at Keanae YMCA campgrounds, creating four sacred element banners, FIRE, AIR, EARTH, WATER, for the fourth year and was used again for SOURCE Maui 2012- Circus of Dreams. She is already anticipating and creating for SOURCE 2013.
'There is an ART to LOVING LIFE. Let LIFE be your inspiration to create ART. '- Annie
Anne Provost joined Fine Art America on May 23rd, 2012.