Anne Packard

The painting tradition is strong in Anne Packard's family from grandfather, Max Bohm, turn of the century Impressionist, to her grandmother, great aunt, uncle, mother, and daughters. Packard studied at Bard College and with Philip Malicoat of Provincetown.

Anne Packard has one viewer in mind when she paints her misty Provincetown landscapes: her daughter, Cynthia. Cynthia lives across the street from her mother, and although Anne has been painting for nearly 40 years, it's Cynthia who went to Massachusetts College of Art, Cynthia who spends five days a week in her own studio, Cynthia who pushes Anne past her fears as a painter and into the joys of paint.

When Anne swoops into Arden Gallery, everyone turns to look. Brassy, auburn-haired, on the verge of 70, she commands the room with a presence at once theatrical and down to earth. This is the Provincetown painter's eighth show at the gallery, and at the opening reception, friends, longtime collectors, and fans come up to thank her for her rich but spare landscapes.

She doesn't paint sunshine but likes skies with turbulent clouds. Her paintings have tremendous power, and she portrays the strength of nature in the windswept dunes, the force of the quiet seas, the light striking through the storm clouds, the intensity of night coming across the water. There is a quality in those paintings that draws the viewer in to wonder a little, to contemplate the viewpoint. Packard says that she wants the viewer to see whatever he or she wants to see in them.

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.

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