This month we’re featuring Anne Albright for the Capitol Hill Art League’s Mind of the Artist feature. Read their story and check out their beautiful artwork below. Follow Anne Albright on Instagram at @PlaysInThePaint and find them at https://playsinthepaint.square.site.

My journey into watercolor and mixed media came about in an unusual way.  I graduated from the University of Georgia with a BS in Computer Science and worked in the IT business for over 35 years. In 2006 I volunteered to assist UGA’s Lamar Dodd School of Art with technology recommendations for their new art school and became interested in studying art myself. I took my first watercolor workshop with UGA at their Cortona, Italy campus in 2008.  From 2008 to 2017, I took classes at The Yellow Barn and The Art League in Alexandria and traveled around the world taking workshops and classes. I was unable to focus and improve my art through daily practice until I retired from IBM in 2017.  With retirement came daily painting and focus on learning how to draw and paint.  

I love how watercolor flows and blends with other colors on the paper. I can sit and paint swatches for hours just to relax, meditate and observe what the different pigments will do.  In learning how to do collage and make “skins” for projects, I came up with a unique way of combining watercolor with pen&ink.  I call these “doodles”, but they are really interesting non-representational works which each person views and sees differently.  I also paint traditional scenes of flowers and landscapes, but my “doodles” cause me to smile and forget the stress of what has been going on in 2020.  I also use many of my practice paintings for color and interest in my collages.

I joined Capitol Hill Art League in spring 2020 and I have found the friendship and mentoring of other members to be of tremendous help during these days of social distancing and general anxiety and uncertainty.  I’ve been studying watercolor with David Daniels for several years as well as mixed media with Marcie Wolf-Hubbard and Sharon Robinson.  Each of these teachers have inspired me to try new things and to be a “fearless artist.”

For more info on Anne, visit 

https://playsinthepaint.square.site

IG – PlaysInThePaint