Over the last decade, I've been fortunate to spend time in the Colorado Rockies. Like many of us, I am drawn to wild places where we can experience a regeneration of the spirit. It inevitably resulted in a new interest in landscape painting.
These wild places, and even the very idea of wilderness, are threatened in countless ways. Pristine wilderness is becoming rare, mythic, legendary. I felt that a realist, plein air technique doesn't address this reality. Rather,I explore expressionist, visionary, and abstract approaches. Using fantastic color, image fragmentation, and expressive marks, I make mysterious, romantic pieces that invoke memories or dreams of a wild place or transcendent experience. I wish to celebrate the very necessary idea of wilderness, through my imagination and art.
Artist Biography
Phyllis Anderson is a Philadelphia-based artist, with a second home in Colorado. She received a BFA at the University of Texas, and later studied at the Art Students League in New York. Her work has ranged from figurative to abstraction, and she currently is exploring dreamlike landscapes, currently on view in Winterpark, Golden and Boulder, CO.
After college, Phyllis and her musician husband moved to New York from Texas, where she concentrated on developing her own vision. By the time her first child was born, she was making large-scale paintings that emphasized surface effects. After the birth of a second child, she stopped practicing art for many years, and finally returned to the studio in 2004, while working a day job to help support her family. She left in 2018 to concentrate on her art full-time.
In 2015 until 2019, she was a member of an artist co-op, Twenty-Two Gallery in Philadelphia. In 2016, she was accepted as an artist member of the Noyes Museum of Art in New Jersey. Other professional memberships followed, including Artists Equity, the Da Vinci Art Alliance, and InLiquid, all in Philadelphia, as well as the Foothills Art Center in Golden, CO. In 2020, she joined RGallery in Boulder, CO, and participated in a mural festival in Fraser, CO, where her mural was purchased for the Cozens Ranch Museum. Her work can be seen at Framewerx Gallery in Winter Park, CO. In addition, Phyllis shows regularly in juried exhibits throughout the country. Her work is in several private & corporate collections, including ones in Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Denver.
Education
1981 University of Texas, Austin, TX BFA, Painting
Continuing Education
1985 Art Students League, New York, NY
Awards & Honors
2021 Emerging, Tri-State Artists Equity, Cheltenham, PA Honorable Mention, Landscape
2020 Unstoppable, Tri-State Artists Equity, Cheltenham, PA 1st Place 2D
Art of the Mark, Art Guild, Manhasset, NY Honorable Mention
1981 Ford Foundation artist travel grant (Italy, Germany, France, England)
Affiliations
Associate Artist, Noyes Museum, Hammonton, NJ Da Vinci Art Alliance, Philadelphia, PA Foothills Art Center, Golden, CO RGallery, Boulder, CO
Exhibitions
Solo
2016 Recent Work, Twenty-Two Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Group
2022 Reflections, RGallery, Boulder, CO
2022 Juried Member Show, Foothills Art Center, Golden, CO
Member Exhibition, Noyes Museum Arts Garage, Atlantic City, NJ
2021 Hope & Possibility, Bridgette Mayer Benefit Exhibit, Philadelphia, PA
Vibrant and Bold, RGallery, Boulder, CO
Emerging, Tri-State Artists Equity, Cheltenham, PA
Fall Annual Exhibition, Perkins Center for the Arts, Moorestown, NJ
ArtWalk at Fraser River Trail, Winter Park, CO
Member Spotlight, Noyes Arts Garage, Atlantic City, NJ
The Boulder We Love, RGallery, Boulder, CO
Summerhouse, HOT • BED, Philadelphia, PA
2021 Juried Member Show, Foothills Art Center, Golden, CO
Member Exhibition, Noyes Museum, Atlantic City, NJ
2020 Art of the Mark, Art Guild, Manhasset, NY
Unstoppable, Tri-State Artists Equity, Cheltenham, PA
Fall Annual Exhibition, Perkins Center for the Arts, Moorestown, NJ
Breaking Point 2020, Next Gallery, Lakewood, CO
Mountains, Peaks & Waterfalls, RGallery, Boulder, CO
Fluid Transition, Da Vinci Art Alliance, Philadelphia, PA
2020 Mountain Mural Fest, Fraser Public Arts Committee, Fraser, CO
