A sunny scene by the sandy shores of a beach, which could disputably be somewhere in South Florida, is shimmering with a veneer of euphoria-like joy and a sense of freedom. The limber palm trees, the mysteriously inviting blue ocean and the widely open skies all look familiar. You’re sure you’ve seen it in another artwork. Or was it in a dream you had? Oh yes - it was a dream indeed.

You were at the beach for a vacation. There was no echo of its beginning and no prospect of it ever ending. You’re feeling the unmistakable lightness of the breeze and the softly crumbling ebb of the sand you’re walking on. Then you wake up and realized it was only just a dream.

Anne Marie Brown’s work can essentially pass as Realist art. There is no exaggeration in her depiction of nature and the scenes are undeniably commonplace. Nonetheless, something in her work seems wonderfully unfaithful to the trivial reality. Each work of art she produces looks like snapshots taken from a bygone vacation - thee perfect vacation.

Looking back now and trying to gather up your blissful encounters with nature during that vacation as you flip through each photo in your keepsake album makes you wonder whether it actually took place. Fun memories start flashing through your head. Gradually, you slide back into that narrow space between your dream and the reality, reminding yourself that such places and situations do exist in your head and are therefore real.

Anne Marie began painting in her 20’s when she was a florist in New Jersey, painting her own floral designs in watercolor. Her leaving the North East can be likened – to an extent – to Gauguin’s leaving of 19th Century France. Both artists seemed to have been longing for a more vivid color palette inspiration.

In the primitive communities of French Polynesia, Paul Gauguin uncovered the local culture’s kinship with the natural world. The spiritual dimension in all their dealings with nature unlocked the artist’s search for his own direct relationship with the natural world. Gauguin started to approach his process of painting as a philosophical meditation with the possibility of religious fulfillment. He sought for answers on how to live closer to nature through ruminating over human existence, equally magnifying its glory and savagery.

Anne Marie may not concede to be driven by the same impetus, yet in her work, any viewer can sense that she paints beyond what is corporeal. The familiar trees, beaches and skies take on a higher dimension, embodying a spiritual realm that encapsulates the same things that dreams of idyllic vacations are made of.

Around 1906, Paul Gauguin’s work on Primitivism – taking the simplest elements of nature and mankind and infusing them with a deep spiritual undercurrent - took on Paris’ Avant-Garde art circles by storm. Later on, artists such as Picasso, Matisse and Derain started to follow his lead and delved into the same approach, compounding it with their styles and personal takes on the subjects and thus shaping foundations of Modern Art.

There is a metaphysical effect in Anne Marie’s work. After looking at her work, you automatically start attaching images of her art to your inventory of ideas of how a perfect, dreamlike paradise looks like. Wherever it takes you mentally, be careful that you don’t catch yourself disappearing in Dreamland.

Anne Marie exhibits throughout South Florida and along the coast of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. She is a member of and exhibits with the Delray Art League in Veterans Park, Atlantic Ave. & the Intracoastal in Delray Beach. She has exhibited numerous other venues such as the Karen Ledbetter Galleries, Bonnet House, Crest Theater, Greight Spaces, Arts Arena, Lake Worth Art League, My Own Cruising Journal and numerous other locations.

On October 26, Friday, Anne Marie Brown will be at the Orlando art gallery to exhibit her work and discuss her inspirations, process and other things you might want to ask her.

RSVP for the event here >