At ten years old, Anna Rose Bain got her first painting lesson from her grandfather, a World War II veteran who started painting in his seventies. She sold her first drawing at age twelve and as a college student, she realized painting was something she wanted to do full time. “I love that every painting is a new opportunity to learn and grow or explore subject matter,” says Anna. “Painting also often presents some kind of problem that I want to solve, whether that be lighting or a tricky composition.”
Anna’s painting style can best be described as representational with elements of impressionism. “I paint objects to look like things as opposed to an abstract artist where you are just arranging shapes on a picture plane or canvas,” she explains. “Even though there are abstract elements in my paintings, in the end, you get a picture that someone can relate to because they recognize it as a landscape, a person, or kind of flower.”
Although she creates all types of paintings, Anna specifically enjoys painting portraits, figures in the landscape, and flowers. One historical portrait she painted of Abraham Lincoln drafting his second inaugural address hangs in a Colorado charter school. Anna’s favorite subjects to paint, however, are women and children. “I’m always looking for ways to elevate motherhood and children as subject matter in fine art,” she says. “I feel that having women and children as subjects is often looked down upon or not taken as seriously as portraits of politicians or public figures. In my opinion, I feel that there is so much more that can be gleaned from a painting of a child and we can learn so much from children as subjects.”
Two of her favorite people to paint are her son and daughter, whom she has been painting since they were newborns. In those paintings, Anna often intertwines elements from beloved children’s literature, adding an extra dimension for observers to explore. In A Child Will Lead Them, Anna incorporates themes from “The Chronicles of Narnia”. “It features my daughter in front of a lion, and she has stuffed animals scattered around her,” shares Anna. “It is like a rite of passage painting; she is rejecting the childish and embracing the grown up. But it also represents the passage from Isaiah where the lion will lie down with the lamb.”
Red Balloon, a painting of her son which was recently named Best in Show at the Colorado Governor’s Art Show & Sale, incorporates elements from the book “Goodnight Moon”. “Red Balloon is a painting of my son around the age where he was getting his medical diagnosis of high functioning autism, so it is a very personal painting,” shares Anna. “He is holding this red balloon and standing in front of massive hedges of hydrangeas. He is kind of detached from the red balloon, not really looking at it or paying attention to it, and it is almost like it could float away at any minute. That red balloon represents what we might consider normal childhood. The hydrangeas are like his complex, wonderful, amazing thoughts that none of us will ever know what they are, but they're beautiful and they are his.”
Because Anna enjoys painting her kids and often uses them as subjects, people often ask if it is difficult for her to see the paintings go home with clients. “I'm happy to sell my work and I'm also happy to hang on to it,” she explains. “For me, it is really about the journey and the painting process. Then I can release the paintings to a special home somewhere else knowing that I created it with all of my love and heart. There is a piece of me in every single one of them.”
Anna looks for inspiration in everyday life and Colorado supplies her with endless inspiration. “Colorado is such a wonderful place to live with so much beauty and sunshine,” says Anna. “In the summer, I work out a lot so that I can hike with my painting stuff out to the mountains and paint the landscape as well.”
In addition to creating original paintings that include commissioned pieces, Anna teaches group painting workshops in her Arvada studio for adults interested in exploring oil painting. Workshops often follow themes such as flowers, landscapes, or portraits. Last summer, Anna had the opportunity to lead an oil painting retreat in the La Marche region of Italy. “It was one of those experiences where you combine all the sensory experiences into one. We ate good food, saw gorgeous scenery, and took in the culture and history - then processed that through art and painting,” she shares. “All of my students came out of the experience feeling like it was the best trip they had ever been on.”
For Anna, painting is more than a hobby or a career, it is a lifestyle she plans to enjoy as long as possible. “I process the world entirely through art making and it is so exciting to be able to travel and paint,” she says. “I tell people all the time I'm never going to retire because it is a job that you never get tired of.”
To explore Anna’s work and find out more about commissioning a piece or joining a workshop, visit artworkbyannarose.com. To stay up to date on workshop availability, sales, and other announcements, sign up for the newsletter and follow @annarose_artist on Instagram.
"I process the world entirely through art making and it is so exciting to be able to travel and paint"