Anne Packard brings to her work instinct and skill drawn from a deep family well of American and European painters. A third generation Provincetown painter, she is a bona fide Cape Cod artist. Her grandfather, Max Bohm, was a leading turn of the century impressionist painter, who in 1916 came to Provincetown, MA with many European and American artists. Her grandmother, great-aunt, uncle and mother were also respected painters. The painting tradition runs strong in her family and continues with her children.
Born and raised in Hyde Park, NJ, Anne Packard spent summers as a child in Provincetown. She moved there permanently in 1977 with her five children. A self-taught artist, initially her art was worked on wood panels and weathered shingles, sold to passing tourists. When she comitted to life as an artist, she took up study with Phil Malcoat, and attended Bard College. Her work has seen a tremendous evolution to the minimalist seascapes that have become iconic.
Her studio is perched over the water on Provincetown’s harbor, where she has been able to study the horizon’s ever changing aesthetics. Her deft handling of paint results in complex layers of undulating tonalities that elevate her works to a spiritual plane. These transcendent oil paintings offer the viewer a place for meditative experience. By way of her willingness to abandon detailed representation, the experience of viewing her paintings is exactly that of standing at the water’s edge and staring out to where the ocean meets the sky.
“My paintings have nothing to do with Nature. It’s something to do with forever going...the space behind the sky...the space behind the shadow. It’s an inner world of emotion and yearning. I yearn to express solitude.” - Anne Packard