About the Artist

“Anne Garney’s frequent flyer miles are downright enviable…She has hopscotched throughout the United States and to numerous countries including Italy, Mexico, and Switzerland to capture stunning landscapes. Painting on site wherever she travels allows her to foster a personal connection to the setting and the environment. Garney captures this striking dichotomy with a conscious use of color that makes her work instantly recognizable.” -Miun Gleeson, Urban Times Magazine

Hometown:  Kansas City, Missouri

When Did You Begin Painting:  At ten. My mother gave me a little kit of oil paints and I painted my first beach landscape, palm tree and all.

Art Education: Studied at the University of Kansas and the Kansas City Art Institute. I was asked to teach continuing education classes by the Kansas City Art Institute 2008-2014. I taught Painting, Plein Air Painting and Art Business classes.

Style:  Representational. Contemporary Fauve Expressionist.  Landscape Painter.  Colorist.

Medium and Palette: Oil on Canvas. My palette has evolved over the last several years as I have experimented with brand names and various colors. It’s a process. I’m continually learning about painting and studying color relationships.

Painting Process: Most of my paintings are painted on-site during various travels.  Upon arriving in a new place, I spend a day or two seeing the sights, looking for the perfect painting spot. My preference is to portray a building or buildings, something man-made, set amidst the beauty of nature. I’m looking at color, light, composition, and the movement within the picture. I like a composition that draws you into the scene and that may have one or two secondary focal points which add depth and interest. In a way, I think maybe it gives you the feeling that nature is more approachable or accessible in a painting when man-made objects or figures are included in the landscape. I like painting on-site because of the personal connection to the setting and environment. As I am painting, I feel happy, part of the landscape, part of the moment, seeing more deeply. The beauty of the scene before me becomes mine, a part of me always.

My paintings start with a cadmium red light base instead of a white canvas. Using a paint brush and ultramarine blue, I do a quick sketch of the scene that serves as a guide for the painting.  In the final painting, if you look you can see some of the red background and early drawing lines still visible. I like how the red contrasts and makes all the colors more vibrant. As I paint, I stay pretty close to what I’m seeing and respond to the scene in front of me. As time allows, sometimes I’ll paint for a single day on-site, sometimes several days. My goal is to finish 90% of the painting on-site. I particularly try to capture the sky, the water, the quality of the light while on site. The finishing touches to the paintings are done in the studio from my photographs. Each painting captures a distinct moment in time, a recording of light, shape, color and time. And I try to be true to that moment as I finish the painting.

Traveling with Paints: My oil paints and easel are in my checked luggage and my canvas has a special 4” wide hard case and is checked too. Oil paints can take about five days to dry, so I’ve developed a couple techniques for traveling with wet canvas.  I put the wet canvas face to face with another canvas with spacers pins between and then bungee cord them together and I carry the canvas in a plastic bag or the 4” case. The canvas bag works well when I’m hiking to a painting spot or riding on a bus.  On a trip to St. John, I hiked 2 miles through the forest with paints, easel, and canvas to paint at an overlook of Cruz Bay.  And on an earlier trip, each morning I would take a bus from Santa Margherita and then hike up to the little yellow church to paint in Portofino…an amazing place to paint. See photo. Another travel difficulty is that you are unable to fly with turpentine which is a combustible. Lately, I’ve been using Safflower Oil which works well and you can fly with it.

Favorite Travel Locales: It’s hard to choose.  It must be warm.  All of them. Every place I’ve ever painted a painting and every place I’ve yet to paint.  Venice, Varenna, Cinque Terre, Rome in Italy. Beausoleil, Villefranche, Paris in France. Monaco. Lausanne in Switzerland.  Kauai.  St. John and Tortola in the Virgin Islands.  Playa del Carmen, Holbox, Isla Mujeres in Mexico. All over the continental US including Laguna Beach, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Yosemite, the Oregon Coast, Sedona, Zion, Moab, Colorado.

Travel Stories: In Kauai, which is one of the most naturally beautiful places I have ever seen, I painted on Tunnel Beach in Haena while my friends had a picnic. It was an incredible view and setting.  We really wanted to hike the Kalalau Trail and even started up it, but it was all wet rocks and mud and very slippery. Next time, I will have to bring special hiking shoes and be prepared. Also, I highly recommend the open door helicopter tour of the island.

On my travels, I’ve painted from my balcony on a number of occasions including the amazing view in Positano, Italy (below). It turned out the hotel we stayed at, Albergo California, was the same hotel they used in the movie “Under the Tuscan Sun”. Highly recommend the hotel. 

Problems can arise while painting on site and not just from bugs and the wind blowing sand on the canvas.  In the Tuileries Garden in Paris, the police told my friend and I that we were not allowed to paint in the park, and that we needed a permit.  Fortunately, we were just about finished for the day.

Other passions:  Traveling.  Friends & Family.  Live Music.  Reading Fantasy and other Fiction.  Objectivism.  Parks. Hiking. Waterfalls. Kayaking. Frisbee Golf. Photography. 

Quirkiest Trait:  Love of humidity.

Pet Peeve: Pigeons overhead.  Especially in Venice.

Favorite Authors: Janny Wurts, Brandon Sanderson, Robert Jordan, Ayn Rand. I love Fantasy Fiction– Good vs. Evil –Good always wins! Books with heroes, characters with integrity.

Favorite Studio Music: There are 3000 songs in my iphone which I set to shuffle.  Artists including but not limited to Calexico, Koffee, SOJA, Stick Figure, Burning Spear, Kizzy, Jack White, Arise Roots, The Kills, Beatles, Bob Marley, John Doe, Dennis Brown, Nina Simone, The Movement, Quiles & Cloud, Wilco, Making Movies, Expassionates. 

When painting on site, I listen to music by headphones – it helps me concentrate and not hear people’s comments around me.  It’s particularly helpful in a busy tourist spot, like in Venice, painting “Venice Grand Canal”.  I started early in the morning when there were few people around, but there was a steady flow of people going by as the day progressed.  It’s pretty amazing painting in Venice with the gondolas floating by in front of you.  As the painting progresses, I become absorbed and don’t notice the people, the music, or anything else but the painting and the scene before me.

Favorite Quote: The harder you work, the luckier you get.  

Artistic Influences: In every city I visit, I go to see their Art Museums and Art Galleries.  I love to see the paintings of the Fauves, the Expressionists, Gauguin and VanGogh. The Fauves, a group of French artists in the early 1900s, painted with brilliant, luminous colors expressing a joyful passion for life. My favorite artists from the Fauve movement include Andre Derain, Maurice Vlaminck, and Henri Matisse. When I was in the Mediterranean in 1999, I specifically took a train and boat to Saint Tropez to see the Musee de l'Annociade which has a large collection of Fauve paintings.  It was wonderful to see. 

From the Expressionists, I love seeing early works of Kandinsky, also, Gabriele Munter, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Erich Heckel, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. In May 2019, I was excited to see their paintings at the Brucke Museum in Berlin. Viewing these paintings in person is awe-inspiring and so much better than in an Art book or online.

Favorite Artwork by another Artist: Andre Derain’s “Three Trees at L’Estaque” and “Mountains at Collioure”, Maurice De Vlaminck’s “Restaurant de la Machine”.  Georges Braque’s “The Large Trees”.  Paul Gauguin’s “Tahitian Landscape, 1893” and Vincent VanGogh’s “Wheat Field with Cypresses”

Contemporary Artist(s) you admire: There are many I admire – here are a few of the more colorful –  Russ Vogt, Manel Anoro, Don Tiller, Barbara Zaring, Angus Wilson.

Price Range:  $600 to $10,000. Each painting seems to find the right home. A painting should be purchased only if you love it. And then it will bring you continual joy as you live with it. And I could not be more grateful than when one of my paintings connects with another person and they take it home.

Next Big Goal:  My next trips planned – Roadtrip to Wyoming and back to Oregon. Tahiti, Europe….  There is so much beauty everywhere.  Getting outside in the next couple of days before weather changes for painting.  

Creative Spark:  A scene before me and a paint brush in hand.  That’s all it takes.  

Community Work:  Volunteer - Kansas City Missouri Park Board Commissioner 1992-1999; FOCUS Kansas City Steering Committee 1994-1996; Marc Bike Trail Steering Committee 1998-1999; Liberty Memorial Funding & Renovation Committee 1999; Served on the Friends of the Fountain Committee 2016-2018.

Career before Painting:  Immediately after college, I trained with a Residential Homebuilder; eventually, starting my own custom homebuilding company, Garney Custom Homes, Inc..  Click here to see a 2 minute video showing 18 homes I built and designed. I enjoyed the challenge of designing a home to fit the needs of a particular site and family.  But I never stopped painting, and when I was able to, in June 1999, I pursued Painting full-time.  I had made a promise to myself that at some point in time, I would paint full-time for a year and see what would happen with my Art.  I’ve always thought of painting as a creatively cumulative process that builds on itself and I was curious how my artwork would progress.

First Show:  March 2000 - after a lot of thought about the business side of Art including presentation, frames, lighting, prints, business cards, etc, I had a show of the work I had been creating - 30 paintings on display at Shiraz. The response amazed me, and it was very encouraging.  My year of painting extended to another year and then another and 100+ shows later I’m still painting and hope to do so forever.

Publications and Associations: "Kaleidoscope dreams", Kansas City Star, April, 2000;  Member, KANSAS CITY ARTIST COALITION;  Member, FRIENDS OF ART-NELSON GALLERY; "Open Studios", KCAC Forum, January 2001;  “Celebrating Color”, Kansas City Star, July 2002;  “New Ashby-Hodge Show”, The Talon, Spring 2005;  “CMU Exhibit to feature Kansas City Artist”, The Fayette Advertiser, May 2005;  “Exhibition at Mango Tango”, St. Thomas Source, December, 2005;  “The Scenic Route”, Present Magazine, September, 2006; Sun Gazette, November 2007; St. Thomas This Week magazine cover June 2009, February 2010; ”Colorful Painting of Artist’s Travels..” Sun Tribune, November 2009; “Home is Where the Art is” Home in the Northland Magazine, May 2012; “Paintbrush” Pitch Magazine, July 2012; Co-Founder, BRUSHCREEK ART WALK, July 2012; “At the Brushcreek Art Walk…”Kansas City Star, July 2012;  “Mixed Palette Exhibition at Mango Tango”, The Source St. John, June 2017; Missouri Arts Council Featured Artist, January 2021, “Portraits” VoyageKC, October 2021

Galleries and Shows:  My paintings have been featured in art shows in a variety of venues including the Albrecht-Kemper Museum, the Ashby-Hodge Gallery, the Huntsman Gallery in Aspen, Colorado, the Wicker Wood Gallery on St. John, the Mango Tango Gallery on St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Anguilla International Art Festival and numerous exhibitions in Kansas City.