Plein air in Mendocino, photo by Aimee Eriksen.
Biography
Ann McMillan is an abstract and landscape painter, and art instructor in Northern California. Ann McMillan began oil painting in 1997 after studying drawing, science illustration and watercolor painting since childhood. Ann studies the interaction of light and color in the tradition of California Impressionism. Ann always looks for strong and unusual compositions and color combinations. She creates art that reflects the vibrancy of nature and her love of close observation of the landscape.
Ann's teaching focuses on skill-building in drawing and painting. Ann has innovated a way for students to rapidly improve their drawing skills.
Artist's Statement
Art has always served as my translator and connection with nature-- a love of color and authentic observation that is best served in the great outdoors. After working in plein air landscape for many years, I opened my art practice into some stories and themes that had been appearing in my path for many years. My installations and abstractions show my interest in intuitive and innovative art practice. When I opened my art practice to new ideas, I found that these scattered art endeavors would lead me to new encounters with color in nature. I look forward to continuing these themes. My art is about true observation, and slow perception. Mindfulness can be a way of art.
“It has been a pleasure to watch Ann experiment with style, technique, and form as she has developed as an artist over time. Some sixteen years after I acquired my first painting from Ann her works can be found in nearly every room of my home, and have become an integral part of my collection and life.”
“Ann is one of my favorite plein air painters, and I would gladly devote a room of my house as a gallery of her work. I commissioned a pastel combination of several photographs I took of the plain of temples near Pagan, Burma. ...for me, the painting recreates the thrill of experience. Ann wasn’t there, but her perceptive hand puts me there every time I gaze at it. ”