About The artist

"I am in love with the natural world. Every answer is right there within it, just waiting for us to notice. It tells us stories about where we come from. The natural world grounds us and teaches us with her beauty about lasting joy and who we truly are. I will never tire of interpreting her perfect shapes, colors and moods." 

-Anna Ayres

“Anna’s art has an amazing energy and brings forth such higher vibrations and consciousness to the planet. It’s a true blessing!”

- Trisha, a loyal patron

Anna Ayres began her painting career well before she began painting. A childhood immersed in the four seasons of rural Vermont showcased the natural world to Ayres, initiating an early sense of wonder and gratitude for it. In winters, the Ayres family skated by lantern on icy cornfield valleys. In summers, a waterfall in the woods transformed into a cold swimming oasis.  In fall, she and her siblings sold garden pumpkins and gladiolas by the side of the road and spring burst with fresh life and color of overwhelming magnificence. To Ayres, the land was a giant, magical playground in which to play. Every day brought her to the outdoors, showing her something newly beautiful and different to be appreciated. These experiences afforded Ayres a reverence for the natural landscape, one that inspired her creativity then and continues to influence her work today.

At the tender age of 14, Ayres left the frozen February tundra of Vermont for the dusty dirt roads and lush mountainscapes of Puerto Rico for one week. She travelled with her church youth group to several locations on the island, participating in community projects with schools and churches. During her time there, she discovered a love for travel. The newness of the warm nights, the smells of cooking rice and beans, the mangos littering parking lots excited her senses beyond no end. This new found love became a theme unwilling to subdue.

Ayres struck gold while studying English at the University of Vermont when she enrolled in an acrylic painting course. This led her to accomplish a minor in Studio Art. After a semester studying abroad in London, where she visited many artists of history in London’s great galleries and museums, she began exploring the medium in more earnest. Ayres’s curiosity for different places and cultures led her to travel in her spare time after graduating college. She explored the western United States, Europe, Costa Rica and Mexico. Upon each return home to Vermont, she delved further into her passion for painting, translating both her travels and home on canvas.

Predominantly self-taught, Ayres began exploring oil paints several years later. She found oils more expressive, with a richness unparalleled by any other medium. After 32 Vermont winters, she made the choice to fulfill a lifetime dream to live amongst the birds and palm trees and moved to St Petersburg, FL. In St Petersburg, she trained to teach yoga and uses the practices of yoga and meditation to continue opening her awareness to the greater world in which we live and how she can do her part to make it better.

Ayres began exploring watercolors and painting on hats around the same time. She uses acrylic paint to create hand-designed hats. Visit her on Instagram @iloveannahats for examples of her work. She offers custom hats of any idea you can dream up, including portraits of your beloved pets.

In addition to her own work, Ayres is committed to working with two St. Petersburg-based non-profits in the arts: Nomad Art Bus whose purpose is to offer art programming to communities with little access, and Creative Clay Cultural Arts Center, a community arts program engaging adults with disabilities. Ayres continues to explore her fascination with the benefits of creativity in the St. Petersburg community.

https://www.creativeclay.org/

http://www.nomadartbus.org/

Ayres's work is updated on this website regularly as well as Facebook, Instagram & Etsy. Read along as she meanders an artist's life with "Words" on this site or stay in the loop and catch special offers by signing up for the Art by Anna Ayres email newsletter below.

Art makes life better!

Love, 
Anna

ArtbyAnnaAyres@gmail.com