Emmaus Public Library: Art At EPL: Meet Anne Landis

Press release from the Emmaus Public Library:

August 6, 2021

We’ve become so accustomed to having beautiful art on display — thanks to the Lehigh Art Alliance — that even a day of bare walls between exhibits feels like a day without sunshine.

The gift of vibrant color and beauty this month comes from Anne Landis, a watercolor artist in Quakertown, where she spent her career as a special education teacher in the district’s schools.

Now retired, Anne is a hospice volunteer at Grand View Hospital in Sellersville and an art therapy volunteer at Good Shepherd Home in Allentown.

Anne’s passion for art began in childhood at Twin Wells, the Connecticut family farm where she spent summers with her grandparents. While tending to her English garden, Anne’s grandmother taught her the names of flowers and weeds, showed her how to tell them apart and arrange the colors, and gave her sketch pads and pastels to make them ‘bloom.’

Not so surprising then that Anne’s specialty is detailed florals. She also paints landscapes, homes and gardens — all in watercolor, all exquisitely. She uses only ‘transparent watercolors,’ saving the white of the paper to show through for the whites in her compositions. She’s inspired by unusual patterns of light, color and shape, and strives to attain a glowing transparency in her work.

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain

ART@EPL is the library’s exciting partnership with the Lehigh Art Alliance and the Lehigh Valley Arts Council. The series is funded through a grant from PA Partners in the Arts, making it possible for area residents to enjoy free art lectures and workshops from local artists working in pastels, charcoal, sculpture, and watercolor among others.

Visit the ART@EPL page to see all the artists who have led workshops and exhibited work at the library as part of ART@EPL.

This press release was produced by the Emmaus Public Library. The views expressed here are the author’s own.