Opening on February 18, Gallery 25N, in the heart of Peekskill's burgeoning art district, will be showing the work of a local landscape artist of exceptional skill and feeling. Anne Johann has lived her life, developed her art and draws a significant part of the inspiration for her paintings from the magnificent vistas of the Hudson Valley. Ms Johann was trained as a portrait painter but an abiding interest in the environment lead her to switch to landscape painting for which she has an amazing gift.

Ms Johann sees her paintings as visual poems. Therefore, although she often finds her inspiration in an instant she often allows that initial impression to gestate for months before beginning work on a painting. Such was the history of "Eden", a view of the Croton Gorge from the top of the Croton Dam. She recounts her first reaction was a wave of gratitude and awe that she had found "this paradise in my own backyard". But she set out not to render that picture but, by using the language of the oil painter, to convey the emotion she felt at that first moment of inspiration.

One of the interesting aspects of Ms Johann's work is that every painting contains water. Whether it's the slightest glimpse of a river or the roiling surf off Montauk, the water is there as her acknowledgement of the "Ying and Yang" of our environment. In her "Ocean Poem 1" you will also see evidence of the depth with which this artist sees and feels her subject as the swirling energy lines in the water are echoed in lines etched by the force of falling waves on the shore.

Ms Johann's work reminds us why we still admire the great landscape painters of the past. Successful art whether written, on film, on canvas or in some other medium always allows us to find something deep within ourselves, an impulse often difficult to articulate, that is fundamentally true and human. I think many will have this experience in front of Ms Johann's paintings.

The show of works by Anne Johann is on view at Gallery 25N, 25 North Division Street, Peekskill, NY 10566, from February 18, - April 10, 2005. The gallery is open Friday - Sunday 1:00 to 5:00 PM and by appointment. The artist reception is March 5, 4:00 to 7:00 PM. (Snow date for Artist reception March 6.)

For more information contact:
Edward Burke
914-293-0811
mail@gallery25N.com
www.gallery25N.com

Anne Johann

Anne Johann is a representational painter whose work emphasizes the beauty of nature. The paintings are visual poems, based not only on the image portrayed, but also on the emotive content of each piece, rendered through the language of color, value, and content. Her paintings have been selected by museum curators and directors for inclusion in regional and national juried exhibitions in the Eastern United States. Her work is in public and private collections and she has exhibited in the United Kingdom.

The recipient of numerous awards and honors, awards for her work include The David T. Langrock Foundation Prize for Landscape (New Haven Paint & Clay Club, New Haven, CT), the Vasari Oil Colors Award ("Art of the Northeast USA", Silvermine Guild Arts Center, New Canaan, CT), and a residency and artist grant from the Vermont Studio Center (Johnson, VT). She completed a Westchester Arts Council Municipal Challenge Grant Mural commissioned by the Town of Cortlandt in 2002. Her biography is listed in the Marquis Who's Who of American Women and Who's Who in America.

Anne Johann was born in Sleepy Hollow, New York in 1957. She received a BFA with Highest Honors from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York and continued her study of oil painting with Ronald Sherr at the National Academy of Design School of Fine Arts in New York City.

Her juried memberships include the National Association of Women Artists and the New Haven Paint & Clay Club. Ms. Johann teaches at the Croton/Cortlandt Center for the Arts in Cortlandt Manor, NY, and The Putnam Arts Council in Mahopac, NY.