About the Artist

Ann Parks McCray,   Wilmington, NC

Ann Parks McCray creates art in Wilmington, North Carolina. The southeastern coastal area’s natural beauty inspires her abstract naturescapes and seascapes. Nature is her primary source of inspiration. Much of McCray's work expresses the essence of sky, sea, and a dense lushness of trees. A range of palette with generous application of paint produces an energetic textured feel that can result in a bold or subtle effect depending on the mood of the piece. These renditions are interpretations of moments in time experienced in particular locations. Many of her over-sized paintings are suitable for large airy spaces where light and distance combine to emphasize a sense of movement in the work.

Ann explains her work stylistically as Post-Impressionist with a modern twist similar in feel to works appearing after Monet and before Kandinsky. These two artists are primary influences as are Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Cezanne, Camille Pissarro, Georges Seurat, and Edouard Vuillard. While not a plein air painter, McCray's immediate outdoor experience is often reflected later on canvas. The paintings, in process and when completed, often offer the artist deeper reflections on the everyday. An intuitive painter, Ann explains her process: “I begin a piece without defined intention; I wait for a composition to emerge. Often while listening to music and working quickly, I choose colors and utensils by feel. Beginning with a brush, I may incorporate spatula, palette knife, or wooden brush handles. I turn the canvas, so a finished piece has been worked from a number of directions.”

Ann studied undergraduate studio art at Amarillo College in Amarillo, Texas, and attended numerous professional art workshops in Texas and New Mexico. She began a professional art career 25 years ago, creating large hand-built nonfunctional high-fire stoneware pottery. As a potter, a favorite aspect was glazing—applying abstract designs to clay. Eventually, she turned full attention to painting on canvas. She works in oils and is represented by Cortile Gallery in Provincetown, MA, and New Elements Gallery in Wilmington, North Carolina. Her work has garnered collectors across the US as well as in Japan, Hong Kong, Ireland, and England. Marrying beauty with function to harmonize space is a personal goal. Ann believes one’s visual experience is psychologically and emotionally significant to a positive life-experience and that art inspires and comforts, heals and rejuvenates—that the human heart rests in beauty. Convinced art is meant to work as well as please, her art hangs in healing spaces in Texas, Ohio, North Carolina, and Montana.

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