About the Artist
Ann Christensen attended Colby College, majoring in mathematics. She had graduate design training with Dietmar Winkler at Southeastern Massachusetts University and enjoyed an award-winning career as a graphic designer for 20+ years.
Ms. Christensen studied studio art with Albert Alcalay at Harvard University from 1978-1980 and with Miroslav Antic and Gerry Bergstein at the School of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts from 1987-1989.
In 1992 Ms. Christensen won the National Faber Birren Color Award for expressive use of color; in 1997 she received the Faber Birren Founder’s Award and in 2001 she received the Faber Birren Revington Arthur Foundation Award.
A resident of Cambridge, MA from 1975-2003, Ms. Christensen received a City of Cambridge Commendation in 1991. In 2003 she relocated her home and studio to Chelmsford, MA where she paints full-time.
In 2006 she was awarded Best in Show in the open competition "Blue" at the Cambridge Art Association.
By the Artist
My introduction to art was, appropriately enough, the freshman "Introduction to Art" course at Colby College. I nearly fell off my chair watching those ethereally beautiful Greek classic statues and temples flash on the screen. I was hooked from that point on and took every art elective I could while maintaining my major in mathematics. Art won out over math in the end.
After college I moved to Boston and practiced graphic design while taking advantage of the area's many institutions of higher education to continue my pursuit of fine art. My life evolved in other ways as well, of course: I got married, had a son, lost my husband to leukemia, traveled extensively, established enduring friendships - basically laughed and loved as much as I could - and experienced the inevitable ups and downs of growing through life. In 2013 I married my long-time friend, Jeff Johnson.
My influences are Cézanne, the Post-Impressionists, Matisse and the Fauves, and the American Abstract Expressionists. I hope that some of my paintings remind you of a place you have been or perhaps would like to visit.