born October 22, 1956

Ann Getsinger’s roots stretch from the deep south to the coast of Maine, and San Francisco, but at center are the Berkshire hills of western Massachusetts where she’s lived full time since 1980, “the place they’ll spread my ashes” she says.

Born in Waterbury, Connecticut, October 22, 1956, Ann grew up in then rural Watertown, beside a working dairy farm and miles of woods. The youngest of five, she was raised in an atmosphere of creative activity, to the explosive backdrop of the sixties, and with a closeness to nature and agriculture. Every spare moment was spent drawing or horseback riding. She won the Art Award in Junior High and again in High School. Showing an early interest in environmentalism as well as an early horror of all things nuclear, her yearbook quote upon graduation in 1974 was “Take care of the earth.”

After first studying at Paier School of Art in New Haven, CT, she then moved to the Berkshires working as an illustrator and graphic designer before leaving to study at the San Francisco Art Institute in 1979. At that time San Francisco was experiencing the ‘Punk’ movement which overlapped with the remaining hippies, and was just before the awareness of the AIDS epidemic. She studied under abstract expressionist Hassel Smith and worked on an Alice Aycock installation. While on the west coast she traveled to the lagoons of central Baja, Mexico to witness the California grey whales’ annual return.

In 1980 she came back to New England living first in coastal Maine and then returning to the Berkshires. There she met and studied informally with representational artist Sheldon ‘Shelly’ Fink. Shelly introduced the young artist to the tradition of realism, the working methods, materials, and philosophical perspective- something she’d been hungry for. The two lived together, created a business, and formed a friendship which lasted until Shelly’s death in 2002. In the nineteen fifties Shelly Fink was a member of a group of realist painters in New York City which formed after World War Two, a group which went against the then current fashion of modernism, relating instead to the long line of realists which extended from Rembrandt, and Vermeer, through Sorolla, Kathe Kollwitz, and especially to Thomas Eakins. Among their group were David Levine, Harvey Dinnerstein, and Herbert Steinberg.

In 1988 Ann Getsinger bought her home, which had previously been a laundry building on a once elegant turn-of -the-century estate, in the rural southern Berkshire ‘hill town’ of New Marlborough, MA. In the late 1970’s the estate had been the home of fluxism founder George Maciunas, where he was visited by John Lennon and fluxist artist Yoko Ono. In 2002 Ann Getsinger designed and constructed a studio building just a few steps from her home. Its design, with three tall windows to the north, was inspired by the studio of late 19th- early 20th century sculptor Daniel Chester French in nearby Glendale, MA.

Beginning in childhood, a lifelong connection with the coast of Maine was forged, with summers spent at her family’s cottage near Port Clyde. It was through the nearby Farnsworth Museum in Rockland, Maine that Ann came to know and appreciate the work of many Maine artists, most notably the work of N.C. Wyeth, his son Andrew Wyeth, and Andrew’s son Jamie Wyeth. The three generations, each remarkable in a distinctive way, have influenced her work significantly. She points out that she and N.C. have the same birthday.

Ann Getsinger is a generalist in her life and in her work. Her interests include antique prints, historical ephemera, and photography, decorative arts, as well as natural history- her many shells, bones, seedpods, and a horse skull- along with odd toys and decorative hats, fill her studio. She’s a voracious reader of just about anything and cites Mad magazine as an early influence, noting especially the drawings of Don Martin. Some of Ann Getsinger’s other artistic influences include the work of contemporary artists Julio Larraz and Walton Ford, as well as the late artists Gregory Gillespie, and friend and New Yorker cover artist Arthur Getz. The books in her library which rarely gather dust are those of Magritte, Botticelli, and Leonardo da Vinci.

Ann Getsinger’s oil paintings, while rooted in traditional realism, have evolved to include layers drawn from surrealism, memory, and imagination. The artist draws from her many interests combining still life, landscape, figurative, and imaginative work, to create a distinct point of view, her own realism with a playful and serious twist.

RESUME:

IN PRINT-
Book cover art and interior spread. Woodland Style by Marlene Marshall, published in 2010

Cover art- CD. Ellis, Right On Time, 2010

The Artful Mind- interview, 2009

CD Inside Cover. Ellis- Break The Spell, 2008

CD Cover. Ellis- Undefended Heart, 2008

Cover. The Country and Abroad, September 2007

Food in Art. The Country and Abroad, March 2007

Pomegranate Roads by Dr. Gregor Moiseyevich Levin
~2006 Floreant Press- one color reproduction.

Artist’s Resource Trust- the First Ten Years.
2005 Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation- color reproduction.

Cover Photo and article. The Women’s Times, July 2004

Art and the River- Views and Visions of the Housatonic, 2004. Sheffield Art League- color reproduction and biography.

Shell Chic by Marlene Hurley Marshall, 2002. Storey Books- two pages, color reproductions.

The Paintings of Ann Getsinger. The Country and Abroad, Article, Nov. 2000

Earth, Sky, Water. The Artful Mind, October 1999

Clear, Classic. The Paper, September 1998

SELECTED EXHIBITS:

Woodland Style- The Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, MA 2010

The Collective Perspective- Dowling Walsh Gallery, Rockland, Maine 2008

Small Work- Art 101, Brooklyn, NY 2006

Play- Gallery at Stonover Farm, Lenox, MA 2006

Windblown- The Norman Rockwell Museum, Glendale, MA 2005

Art and the River- Geoff Young Gallery, Great Barrington, MA 2004

Housatonic River Summer- The Norman Rockwell Museum, Glendale, MA 2004

Art as Activism- Meetinghouse Gallery, New Marlborough, MA 2003

Bugged- Spencertown Academy, Spencertown, NY 2003

Prime Time Miniatures- The Tremaine Gallery, Hotchkiss School, Lakeville, CT 2003

Botanical- Spencertown Academy, Spencertown, NY 2002

Maine/ Maritime International Flatworks- Reed Art Gallery, Presque Isle, ME 2002

Landscapes and Still Life- Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY 2000

18th Annual Exhibit- Maplebrook School, Amenia, NY 2001

Berkshire Artists- Albany Center Galleries, Albany, NY 1999

Recent Still Life- Berkshire Art Gallery, Great Barrington, MA 1997

Artist’s Self Portraits- Front Street Gallery, Housatonic, MA 1997

Berkshire Artists: Recent Works- Koussevitzky Arts Center, Pittsfield, MA 1997

Wet Paint- The Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, MA 1996

Artists View Nature- The Academy, Salisbury, CT 1995, 2000, 2002

Still Life Painters- The Springfield Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, MA 1996

Twenty-One New England Artists- The Springfield Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, MA 1996

River Images- Stockbridge, MA 1993

SOLO EXHIBITS:

Lauren Clark Fine Art, Housatonic, MA 2011

Infinity Gallery, Norfolk, CT 2011

Panoptica- The Norfolk Library, Norfolk, CT 2009

Art 101, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY 2008

Gallery On The Green, Pawling, NY 2007

Open Studio- Fifty New Works, New Marlborough, MA 2006

Recent Work- Becket Art Center, Becket, MA 2004

Between Fact and Fiction- The Norfolk Library, Norfolk, CT 2004

Open Studio- New Marlborough, MA 2003

Blue Glove, Conductor Fox- The Norfolk Library, Norfolk, CT 2001

Rare Sightings- Tokonoma Gallery, Housatonic, MA 2001

Earth, Sky, Water- Berkshire Art Gallery, Great Barrington, MA 1999

Oh, That the Moon Doth Glow- Tokonoma Gallery, Housatonic, MA 1998

Atrium Gallery, Simon’s Rock College, Great Barrington, MA 1997

Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY 1997, 2010

The Gallery at Gedney Farm, New Marlborough, MA 1994

The Spencertown Academy, Spencertown, NY 1993

EXHIBITED:

Art 101, Brooklyn, NY

Dowling Walsh Gallery, Rockland, Maine

Lauren Clark Fine Art, Housatonic, MA

Intersection Gallery, San Francisco, CA

Gallery at Four India Street, Nantucket, MA

The Millbrook Gallery, Millbrook, NY

Store Hill Gallery, South Egremont, MA

Cavalier Gallery, Greenwich, CT

Hoorn- Ashby Gallery, New York City and Nantucket, MA

Berkshire Art Gallery, Great Barrington, MA

Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY

The Charlestown Gallery, Charlestown, RI

Tokonoma Gallery, Housatonic, MA

Ridge House Gallery, Lubec, ME

STUDIED:

Paier School of Art, New Haven, CT 1975, 1976

San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA 1979

Artist, Sheldon Fink, Alford, MA 1980

AWARDS and GRANTS

First Prize, Landscape- Images From The Field. HVAL, Sheffield, MA 2010

Award- Artist Designed Garden Gates. The Norman Rockwell Museum, Glendale, MA 2009

Honorable Mention-Housatonic River Summer. The Norman Rockwell Museum, Glendale, MA 2004
The Artist’s Resource Trust Grant-The Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, Great Barrington, MA 1998

Award of Distinction- The American Academy of Equine Artists. Lexington, KY 1995