Annie Purvis Studios

From CharlestonWiki

Painter of Tromp l'eoils, Murals and Faux Finishes, Graphite Portraits, Novel Illustrator and Sculptor

In addition to her responsibilities as a graduate student and teacher, Annie has continued to run her Commission Business Annie Purvis Studios. She works on large scale landscape murals, faux finishes, furniture paintings and pencil portraits.

Currently Annie is still illustrating for the writer G.L.Giles, the Agent Jan Kardys, working in a new series of large scale abstracts entitled “Turn Around” and making additions to her Charleston Brideges series.

“Spaces Traveled”

Artist Statement

“Spaces traveled” is a series of abstract works which embody an expression of the sensual and emotional existence of being in various environments. As I traveled through Europe it occurred to me that various environments provide us with experiences that elicit memories and knowledge. Ever since I started painting, at age seven, I felt a need to express my environment artistically. MY room was filled with images of places, people, and objects from my environmental “feeling” world. I have continued this sort of emotive representation of my world as an adult. However, it was not until I had gained a great deal of technical skills artistically that I felt I could uncover the experience of my art making and the environmental engagement that provoked such artistic expressions. As an art student I struggled with how to express the emotive side of this expression-and realistic representation was not enough to express “the spaces between me and my environment” and the feelings of the “in between”.

Even though I had gained a great deal of freedom from my representational background, I still could not break free totally from the visual realistic depiction of the subject. I worked on each painting over and again for months until I discovered a pattern of six layers which brought these emotional feelings to life. Finally, struck by the fear that my mother would never see my paintings due temporary blindness of diabetes, I decided to add a textural reference onto the canvas to convey to the feelings of the work. I added plants, shells of fruits, cotton from the fields, grasses, clay and other objects from our everyday world to represent figures, place and the “spaces” in between them. Finally seven, the age of my first artistic expression became the number of painted layers. The final method for working with in the mixed-media of my abstract series was to ensure the chaos of application and perceptual depth was balanced with a sense emphasis. The work seems disturbing otherwise, visually. Seven then, is the number of completion for each work in each series.

Regarding interpretation: Each painting represents a space we all have traveled or witness others travel. The titles represent the emotive struggles pleasure or pain one feels when in such environments. As we stand on the beaches, in the water, in a cold house or in awe of the grand buildings or persons, we feel the space between us and the objects we encounter- earthly and universal. Each painting is designed with careful planning, in order to evoke a feeling from the viewer and bring the viewer back into balance with the concept of being a part of the universal "spaces". I believe that all humans have traveled these spaces. I also believe we are too busy and thereby we miss too much of the "connectedness" that makes these spaces understandable as human within that particular space. As you gaze into the painting let your body feel, float into the space your visual perception takes you to. It is that feeling that is the appropriate interpretation of the work-you are the artist as you engage into my work. Enjoy the journey. email