Highland Lodge Guest Artist Ann Young

Ann Young was born in Chicago, raised in Illinois and Nebraska but she has lived all of her adult life in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. She dabbled in the “back to the land” movement and raised a family here. From her first paying job illustrating the varmints of the Nebraska plains through her stint as an illustrator for The Center For Northern Studies, to her pseudo-abstract closeups of pond vegetation and the shells of crustaceans, Ann has looked to nature for inspiration.  

A BFA from Rhode Island School of Design sidetracked her into ceramics and sculpture. She spent years in a fruitful career making miniature porcelain, animal and human figures for the wholesale craft market. An interest in large wooden sculpture occupied several years, culminating in large scale gallery installations, which combined the large cedar sculptures with the miniature porcelain figures    

When she finally seriously devoted herself to the exquisite hues and textures which oil on canvas allows, it was with studies of people in portrait and in social interaction that she chose to explore these possibilities and has since devoted almost all of her efforts to painting her fellow travelers.

Ann writes to us, "I struggled in the beginning to learn to paint, and eventually, with the help of a few good teachers was able to direct my work where I wanted it to go...My work has become at once a conversation with myself and an attempt to reveal myself as moved by the same basic human ideas and emotions shared by humanity in general - and by individuals in particular."

Current shows:

Ms. Young's work can currently be seen at River Arts in Morrisville, VT, through July 10.  From October through December, her works will be at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Hospital in Lebanon, NH, and at the Third Floor Gallery in the Hardwick Inn, in Hardwick, Vt.