Ann Parks McCray calls Wilmington, North Carolina, home. This southeastern coastal area’s natural beauty inspires her abstract nature and seascapes. Nature is her primary source of inspiration. Many of McCray’s pieces express the essence of sky, sea, and a dense lushness of trees. A bold palette with generous paint produces an energetic textured feel. 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 freedom in the work.

Marrying beauty with function to harmonize space is a personal goal. She 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.

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 later reflected on canvas. The paintings, in process and when completed, often offer the artist deeper reflections on the everyday.

An intuitive painter, McCray 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. I study each piece in the full-wall mirror in my studio—to consider the painting in its reversed reflection—for hints of additions or revisions. This technique helps me merge further with the painting.”

Ann studied art at Amarillo College in Amarillo, Texas, and attended numerous professional workshops. She began a professional art career 25 years ago, creating large hand-built nonfunctional high-fire stoneware pottery. As a potter, one of her favorite aspects was glazing—applying abstract designs to clay. Eventually, she turned full attention to painting on canvas. She works primarily in oils and is represented in Massachusetts by Cortile Gallery in Provincetown; and New Elements Gallery in Wilmington.

Her work has garnered collectors across the USA as well as in Japan, Ireland, and England.