Ann Scanlan received a BFA from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. After graduation, she continued her art education at the Art Students League in NYC, studying for eight years with distinguished realist artist Frank Mason.
In 2001, she and her late husband, photographer Rick Scanlan, opened Sylvan Gallery in Clinton, CT. Representing up to twenty artists, Sylvan Gallery became one of the premier art galleries on the CT shoreline and was consistently reviewed in the shoreline papers for the high quality of its exhibitions.
In May of 2012, the gallery was relocated to Wiscasset, Maine. The move to the charming village of Wiscasset allows Ann to focus on the Maine landscape - its small river towns, fishing harbors, salt marsh, and rocky coastal views that inspire her so much. If not in the gallery, Ann may be found painting on site or utilizing photographs to work from while painting in her studio over the winter months.
“Always inspired by the rugged coastline that Maine is known for, it was after moving to Maine that I became aware of the small livestock farms quite near my home. I began working on a series of paintings exploring the theme of farm animals in the rural landscape which has become my main focus for almost a decade. I feel a profound sense of peace as I follow a group of sheep as they graze. It takes one back to a simpler time and lets me know that places like this are still in the world. In observing them moving across the landscape, the possibilities for interesting compostions are endless. When I start a new painting, I first look for the color harmony relating the atmospheric conditions of the sky with the land, always trying to convey the particular mood of the scene. As the painting develops, I try to to capture a sense of what I feel while in their presence.”
