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Annie Hoffman BIOGRAPHY
Ms. Hoffman has participated in multiple group shows in California, Paris, and Cambridge, England, and has mounted successful solo exhibits in southern and central California, and in Cambridge. She received awards in both 2002 and 2003 from the annual juried show for the West Valley Artists’ Guild, in Los Angeles. Her work has been published in SAA, an English art magazine.
ARTIST’S STATEMENT My first consciousness of artistic influence came when I was a 19 year old student, standing in front of the seascapes of JMW Turner, and then Van Gogh’s landscapes, at the National gallery in London. The extraordinary use of light and color in both their works had a deep effect on me that remains to this day. After years of working in another career, and taking art classes whenever possible, I had the opportunity to live and study in Paris. The experience was profound, both in the studio and on the streets, and I returned determined to be a serious artist. Like the Impressionists and expressionists who have influenced me, I use color, value, and composition, to explore mood and emotion, in my landscapes and figures. My landscapes, frequently referred to as quiet and contemplative, are mostly based on local areas, in and around the Santa Monica mountains and beaches. This is where I regularly paint ‘en plein air’ – I always prefer to paint in natural light, even when in the studio. I try to make my figures vibrant characters, invested with the usual human frailties, and I weave a story about each of them. I always mean to tie them, thru color and space, to their environment. In my studio paintings, I generally follow a set routine. I pre-plan color, value, and composition, and then usually do a thumbnail sketch to work out my intentions. I next prepare the canvas with a colored wash, using various techniques to develop texture. I consider this stage critical, because I want traces of the wash to remain, and be visible, even after I add new layers of paint. I next draw in the main shapes with a bold line, and finally apply paint in large buttery brushstrokes, washing one into the other. I often use a knife to scrape on thick impasto passages, followed by multiple glazes. Over the years, as I have become more sure and bold in my line and brushwork, my work has increased in size and complexity. I realize that I am painting in series, so as to fully explore my subject. More and more, too, I develop the work – early on – less in terms of precise subject matter, and more in terms of shape and color; I want some of the painting to be “left unsaid,” and open to the vision and interpretation of the viewer. I aspire to have my work stand out for its use of color, and the mood it evokes. I want it to be seen on two levels – first from a distance, where one can experience how I have interpreted the subject matter; second, it should be viewed up close, where one should be able to explore the tactile properties of the paint surface. Each time I start a painting I am excited about its endless possibilities. That may be why I typically work on 10-20 canvases at a time, over a several month period. This allows me both familiarity and distance, to better evaluate their progress. My paintings become real places, and real people, to me – allowing me to lose myself in their world. I feel fortunate to be on this never-ending journey, searching for the heart of the matter.
ART EDUCATION & TEACHING EXPERIENCE1994-5 Académie de Nôtre Dame des Champs, Paris, France 1992-8 Santa Monica College (SMC), Santa Monica, CA 1997-8 Teaching assistant, SMC, Santa Monica, CA 1997-8 Private study with Lance Richlin, portrait artist, LA, CA 1999-00 Private study with Sharon Burkett Kaiser, LA, CA 2004 Art demonstration, Linton College, England
SOLO EXHIBITIONSJuly 2004 Brighton Lodge, Cambridge, England May 2003 Bank of America, Westlake Village, California Feb 2002 Bel Air Association, Los Angeles, California Dec 2001 Village Art, Arroyo Grande, California
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
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A native of London,
England, Annie Hoffman now lives and works in Los Angeles, California.
Having previously taken all the undergraduate art courses she could find,
she devoted herself full time to painting in 1995, when she spent a year
studying at a Paris art academy that emphasized classical values. On
returning to Los Angeles, she studied privately over the next four years
with Lance Richlin, an ‘old master’ style figure painter, and then with
Sharon Burkett-Kaiser, a well-known California Impressionist. Ms. Hoffman
subsequently gained teaching experience as an assistant to Linda Lopez at
Santa Monica College, and then at Linton College, Cambridge (England). 