Process may be one of my favorite parts of art. The making. The insistent need to make. The way we make. The complete abandonment of self, to make. To understand a problem, the need for food can be completely forgotten until we pull our heads up out of our trance, suddenly struck with starvation. A problem to solve can look very different for us. And how. What does it mean to comprehend the light, the movement, and then to imprint this on to a 2D surface. Clash of colors can vibrate and make the work sing. And who is better to think about this than Anne Hysell.
The attention to details and perhaps rules, guides the viewer to a delightful place. Hysell’s compositions of color, light and form provide a fresh awareness and a unique perception of land and water. The impact of a fleeting moment becomes an expression of timelessness in her paintings. Working primarily with pastels and oils, layers of color provide the richness and depth infused in her landscape paintings.
My first impression of Anne stems from her presentation of her palette. A glorious thing, placed on the wall next to her framed work. Mind you, it was abstract dashes and color, not a Bob Ross or artist costume prop. It was process in motion and she knew to celebrate this.
Anne has lived all over the world in her life, from Boston to Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong to across the South West. Born in Minnesota, Hysell studied at the College of Art and Design, University of Minnesota and then later at University of Houston.
Anne has opened three art galleries along the way. Locally, she is a founding member of Studio Two Zero Two. She has agreed to show with the newest kid on the block, Combine Art Collective when they open later this summer, early fall. Like many artists, she feels the tug to stay in the studio or to administrate the showing of the work.
Presently, Anne is looking for a new studio to return to large canvases. In her present living environment, she must work small for lack of making space. When Anne came for her portrait, she removed her elegant blouse, and donned a white shirt. If you look, the tracks of her paintbrush are indiscriminate in their need to be refreshed.
How long have you been in the Walla Walla Valley? Anne has lived in the Walla Walla Valley for twelve and a half years
What moves you, what brings you most alive? What is your favorite place to be in Walla Walla County? What do you hear, taste, and smell there? In painting, what moves Anne and brings her most alive is the earth and all its startling beauty and fierce splendor. When her husband Bob designed and built their home on Kendall Road, her surroundings became the subject of her paintings. Her cherished Greybill Pond provided four seasons of changing and challenging waterscapes. And the trees, fields and the Blues provided the subjects for landscapes. Now that their residence has changed you might sight her plying the country roads in search of new vistas.
A hug or a handshake? By nature she is a hugger but, she does know when to keep her arms to herself and shake hands.
Do you nap? A fifteen minute nap every day suits her well.
Music or quiet, when you work? When working in her studio there is music…always…and primarily classical. But, some paintings require Willie Nelson and others Dave Brubeck or Lady GaGa.
What is something we should know, that we don’t? The first painting Anne ever sold was to the Art Editor of the Minneapolis Star and Tribune. She is quick to add that his significant other was the one who wanted it.
Were you sickly or isolated when you were young?. Anne missed all but the first 6 weeks of first grade because of health issues. She was hospitalized and slept in white sheets, in a white room, ate white rice, and cut zillions of snowflakes out of white toilet paper. She still likes white sheets, white walls, white rice, white toilet paper - but, forget the snowflakes.
Describe a pivotal moment in your life. When she was in Jr. High, clothing design took precedence and that led to figurative work which was the mainstay of her painting and drawing for years. Then came a move to the southwest (AZ and southern CA) and finally to Sonoma, CA…a pivotal time in her life. The light, the color, the rhythm of the land captured her and painting landscapes became her new mode of expression.
But… watch there may be a shift once again…once she finds a new studio location. Any help from you, the readers, would be appreciated.