Annell Livingston

Annell Livingston grew up in a tidal zone, on the south coast of Texas. As a child, she loved to draw and paint, cut and paste, sew and stitch.  Color was her passion.  In the early 1990’s she taught at the Houston Art League and WASH, the Houston Watercolor Art Society Houston.  She also coordinated several collaborative projects for women.

In 1994, after the death of her husband, she moved to Taos, New Mexico, a land of high mountain desert, a place of incredible beauty to work without distraction. She is in the studio every day, having learned that "to be an artist,” is a lifetime study. Because the goal of the artist is elusive and just out of reach, there is no “getting it.”

Artist Statement

Most are aware, paintings look different at a distance or from across the room, than they do up close. The painting calls to us.  We move closer, and upon close inspection, the painting might look completely different, or we realize there was much we could not see.  

While working in the studio, I passed in front of a painting, and suddenly saw the painting differently. I was looking at the painting from an angle.   I moved to the right, then in front of the painting, and then from the left.  Colors seemed to shift before my eyes.

This idea became what I wanted to emphasize in my work.  I began to investigate paint, which paints would give greater color shifts? We never hang a painting and put a chair in front of it to allow the viewer to see the painting from the best vantage point.   Instead, a painting is hung, and we hope the people in the room will enjoy it from whatever distance they see it.