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If she’s not in her garden with her flowers, Annie O’Brien Gonzales is probably painting them.
The Loveland resident specializes in expressive and abstract acrylic and mixed media paintings of floral arrangements, often from her own expansive garden.
“It’s just my favorite thing to paint,” O’Brien Gonzales said. “ … Obviously, I enjoy color. I enjoy all the colorful flowers, and I love gardening, so … I can pick bouquets and paint them and keep them on the wall. They never die.”
Her colorful work is part of the new “The Bright Side” exhibit at The Lincoln Center in Fort Collins, located at 417 W. Magnolia St. Admission is free and the gallery is open Wednesdays and Fridays from 1-6 p.m.
Each of O’Brien Gonzales’ pieces uses various techniques like layering, stencils and decorative paper, as well as vibrant and contrasting shades that are eye-catching.
She said she has always loved bold colors, and that she recently remembered a time from when she was a little girl sitting on her porch coloring where that was evident.
“I went inside, and what I thought was purple was brown,” O’Brien Gonzales said. “And I just freaked out because I was like, ‘These flowers aren’t supposed to be brown!’”
“The Bright Side” exhibit was born out of a desire to have a “bright and cheery” representation of works after winter, said Kristen Vohs, who is a visual arts assistant for the city of Fort Collins. She added that O’Brien Gonzales, as well as several other artists, participated in the city’s biannual call for artists in December, and that a colorful exhibit was fitting for much of the submitted work.
Other parts of “The Bright Side” exhibit include a colorful pillow-like installation by Englewood artist Laura Merage, abstract works by Colorado Springs artist Tricia Soderberg, and several portraits by Denver artist Randall Steinke.
“The Bright Side” will be one of The Lincoln Center’s exhibits until June 12.
O’Brien Gonzales became a full time artist in 2004 after many years as a labor and delivery nurse, medical professor, and faculty member to various medicine and nursing programs in Colorado and Oklahoma. She loved painting as a young girl, she said, adding that she pursued painting and art history in college, but pivoted to have a more lucrative career that her parents would approve of as an academic.
“My parents were like, ‘You need to do something that can get you a job. You can’t just do art,’” O’Brien Gonzales said, adding that although she loved painting, stepping back to pursue her academic career wasn’t very difficult. “I mean, I was a labor and delivery nurse. … I enjoyed that. That was fun. I delivered something like 50 babies. I still vividly remember.”
O’Brien Gonzales most recently lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico for 10 years before moving to Loveland in 2019, and because so much of her art is inspired by the real world, she said she had to make some changes.
“Totally different color schemes. So I’ve had to kind of readjust to coming back here,” O’Brien Gonzales said. “I had to pull out the brighter paints. It’s kind of soft and subtle down in New Mexico.”
In New Mexico she taught classes in the museum dedicated to her biggest artistic inspiration: Georgia O’Keeffe.
As part of the exhibit, O’Brien Gonzales will teach a workshop on floral still life painting on May 31 at The Gardens on Spring Creek in Fort Collins, located at 2145 Centre Ave. The four-hour lesson is $150 and those interested can register online, https://gosc.ticketapp.org/portal/pid/2/product/48/event/60e06e22-360a-4e03-a72b-159ee873ef72.
The former professor said she loves teaching and despite many people’s frustrations with their seeming lack of artistic ability, she believes almost anyone can be taught how to paint or create something they are proud of.
“I developed kind of a system of how to do it to make people feel successful,” O’Brien Gonzales said. She said she first asks students to pick colors that pop, and then teaches them to start layering shapes and colors. “They don’t think they can, but they can.”
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