PROCESS 

 

Yesterday was the closing reception of "Portals" - summer exhibition at Walker Fine Art in Denver, where I exhibited work from my "Wondrous Reef" series. These paintings draw inspiration from the undersea worlds and marine life that I love, combining impressions from my childhood summers on the Adriatic coast and more recent visits to Aruba and Mexico. All paintings here are created with mixed media watercolor and acrylic on deep cradled panels.

During the closing reception's artist panel, I was asked:

Q: You work both on paper and panel. Do you see your process change when approaching these differing mediums?

A: My work is guided by the process, and the process depends greatly on the materials I am using.

I like to play with and embrace the inherent qualities of each material.

The largest body of my work is watercolor on paper, and I paint on cold pressed, hot pressed, and rough surfaces. Some of the papers I use are bright white, some natural and others cream colored. 

Like in a laboratory - I truly get excited over exploring new papers.  I don't stick to one type or brand.

Paper can be moved around easily, lifted, turned, and bent lightly. Sometimes I create subtle burn marks and add pencil marks. All of it feels very natural for work on paper.

The same way - when working on panels, I will see what characteristics the panel itself has that makes it interesting to me, and that I can use in my process.

Panels are generally heavier and more static, of course there is no bending and shuffling quickly, like with paper. 

In my current "Wondrous Reef" series on panel inspired series on panel I make use of panel's natural resistance, and ability to take on texture - so I introduce acrylic paint, for its thickness and potential to build it up.  I play with pairing watercolor's transparency and acrylic's opaque quality and its potential for very vivid colors.

Generally, I am not interested in the resulting outcome in a way that I would conceptualize the process beforehand. I don't do preparatory drawings for my work. I experiment a lot, and draw from that experimentation, but I don't create a plan. It is all "prima vista" so to speak.

Lastly, no matter the material, one thing stays key in all my work - a sense of intimacy and directness. I believe all the work I do is a form of a visual diary, it is vulnerable and sincere. I love the idea that I am sharing an intimate moment with a viewer, regardless if that viewer is a stranger or someone very close to me.

INTERVIEW WITH WALKER FINE ART, DENVER

May 2024

 

 

Here is a recent interview I had with Walker Fine Art - Denver art gallery I have been working with for close to a decade. 

 

 GET TO KNOW...Ana Žanić

Give me the basics.

 
I grew up in Croatia where I spent more than half of my life. I attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Croatia’s capital, Zagreb, where I received my Master of Fine Arts degree. I moved to the United States with my husband in 2003, when he enrolled in physics graduate program at the University of Texas at Austin. After about five years in Austin, we moved to the Chicago area, close to Fermi National Laboratory, and now reside in Geneva, Illinois, with our two sons.

Tell me about your art journey.

  

I was drawing, painting and making things with clay, since my earliest childhood. Something very specific to my family is that we have over a dozen professional visual artists, so art was a way of life, so to speak.
In addition to my creative pursuits, I was very drawn to biology, specifically botany and marine biology and I attended a biology-focused high school. However, when the time came to make a decision about college, I knew with certainty I wanted to pursue art. Croatia is a small country and art school is quite competitive. I remember how excited I was when I got accepted to The Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb.

The first year of school my program started traditionally, with portraits, and still lives. When we got assigned our first homework, I did some of it in watercolor; I remember my professor saying “these are really strong, I think watercolor is your medium!”. While I always felt very much at ease with watercolor, in school I experimented with various mediums. By the end of my program I was doing huge abstract oil canvases, rich in color and texture, very lively and expressive.

Upon arriving to the United States, several months after I graduated, I found myself with lot of time to focus on my practice. In Austin (at University of Texas) I audited several art history classes that interested me, and took a couple of ceramics workshops with master potters, through Austin Museum of Art. I was building my portfolio, and regularly participated in group exhibitions. I didn't have a studio at first, so working with oil paints was no longer optimal, and I found myself once again gravitating towards watercolor. While preparing my portfolio I was also visiting exhibitions, attending openings and was checking galleries' websites to find out where my art would fit aesthetically and conceptually. My first gallery representation started with Kathryn Markel in New York, eleven years ago. I believe this first gallery representation (with a well-established gallery such as Kathryn Markel Fine Arts) helped subsequently open other doors as well. I am still represented by Kathryn Markel Fine Arts, and have since broadened my representations, working also with Gallery 1871 in Chicago, Olson-Larsen Galleries in Des Moines and Walker Fine Art in Denver.

What inspires you?

 
I was always most interested in the abstraction and exploring the world within me. Over time I developed my personal iconography of shapes and marks. Though never a literal reference, nature is to me always an enormous source of inspiration.

 I adore the sea life, and as a child had quite a scientific interest in it. I would spend many hours investigating biology books, and making notes of the sea shells, fish, anemones, jelly fish, or algae I saw while swimming and diving in Croatia's Adriatic. I have a biology-driven nature. In my work it is reflected in the organic fluid shapes and nature's palette.

What are you most proud of in your art career? 

 
Looking back, I am really proud that I accomplished being free to do the work that I love, while starting without any connections. If I had stayed in Croatia, I would naturally be connected with the art scene by default; I went to school there, and know many artists and art historians/critics there personally. However, when I came to the United States I didn’t know anyone. I was able to hold strong in my confidence as an artist, stayed focused, worked hard, put myself out there and made it happen on my own.

What are you looking forward to next?

I am extremely excited about four exhibitions that are coming up this spring and summer. First is a group exhibition "Portals" at Walker Fine Art, in Denver, followed by a two-person exhibition at Gallery 1871 in Chicago, where I will be showing with Jane Gutheridge, whose work I first saw soon after we moved to Austin - twenty one years ago!

In July I am participating in a summer group exhibition at Olson-Larson Galleries, and in September I am showing my work in a curated water-themed group exhibition at Aurora University.

Sharing and showing my work with the audience is incredibly important to me. I am an introvert, and don’t socialize much. I am working in my studio most of the time, and am at ease that way. Still, I find that the final step to an art process needs to be its sharing, its visibility.  

 

In addition to these exhibitions, I am just really happy to spend a lot of time with my family this summer,.

 Hello Spring 2024!

 

Spring is finally here, and the days are filled with light again. I am enjoying the chatter about the solar eclipse that seems to excite everyone!

In my studio - preparations for three upcoming exhibitions this spring and summer are underway.
If you find yourself in one of these cities, I invite you to come out and see the exhibitions in person!

May 17-July 13 Walker Fine Art, Denver
June 20 through late August Gallery 1871, Chicago
July 26 through September Olson-Larsen Galleries, Des Moines


View out to the ocean, Cancún, Mexico, March 2024

Throughout my work nature reveals itself, never in a literal, but rather in an associative, dream-like form.
In the past two years my travels to the Croatian Adriatic coast, Slovenian Alps, beaches of Aruba and most recently Cancún, Mexico, all enriched the beautiful visual inventory, saved deep inside.


Here are a few recent acquisitions of my "Reef" series work, all now a part of private collections, courtesy of my galleries:

 

Lastly, this week I was delighted to see my work listed on the front page of Artsy's "European Artists" section!

  

 

 

 

 RETURN TO ARCADIA

 

Here are a few lines about my recent "Return to Arcadia" series of watercolors on yupo (14"x11"), now available at Markel Fine Arts in NY. 

 

The basis for both my Arcadia series (Trail to Arcadia, and Return to Arcadia) comes from my re-visits to a childhood place, within the Slovenian Alps.

When I was about five, my parents purchased a small condo in the small town of Bovec. At the time, Bovec was still largely "undiscovered" by tourists, and was making its developing strides towards becoming a ski resort.

This incredibly beautiful area is truly breathtaking every time one visits. It shocks all your senses with its colors, fresh cool air, the scent of grass, (and depending on the season - mushrooms, and flowers). The small town of Bovec is settled in a valley, surrounded by the lush dark green mountains, some of which, with their higher altitudes, turn into pristine stone-grey and snow-white peaks.

I always found it unusual that this beautiful location was also one of the deadliest battle fronts in World War I, where about 1.7 millions of soldiers lost their lives, many in direct combat, and many more enduring brutally harsh conditions of cold, snow and blizzards, trailing the steep mountains and crossing deep canyons.

The emerald green color of the Soča river (and many creeks and lakes here) is mesmerizing and surreal. I recently found out one of the Narnia movies was filmed on the location as well, and though I was not at all surprised that this hidden gem would inevitably be "discovered" more globally, I also wished it stayed a hidden gem - the way it was when I was a child.

But even with its more recent popularity among the fans of the outdoor extreme sports and adventurers, one thing stays unchanged - the lush mountains here are so vast and stand so tall, a sense of primal beauty and power of nature here still rings true, and a feeling of sheer awe upon arriving at the scene cannot be disturbed in any way imaginable.

The last time I visited Bovec, with my entire family (my family, my sister's family and our mom), it was apparent to me how "more natural" life feels within this landscape.

I hope I keep returning here, over and over....

 "Why Ana Žanić Doesn't Think About Her Audience While Painting"

Featured Artist with Artwork Archive

January, 8, 2024

 

 Recently, I had a pleasure of being selected as the Artwork Archive's featured artist.

 

Along with their week-long social media promotion of my work, and a front page feature on their Discovery Page, I also did an interview with them. 

 

Titled "Why Ana Žanić Doesn't Think About Her Audience While Painting" the interview was, once again, a great reminder for me as to why I chose the path of an artist. 

 

Luckily, even after over-twenty years since I graduated from art school, my love of creating and living an artist's life has not subsided one bit! 

 

Here is an excerpt of the interview:

 

 Why Ana Žanić Doesn't Think About Her Audience While Painting

                                                                                            by Paige Simianer | January 9, 2024


Ana Žanić's artwork, primarily created in watercolor, is a testament to the fluidity and spontaneity of life. Her technique, deeply rooted in the spontaneous and gestural act of mark-making, is a homage to calligraphy and symbolic communication.

Her paintings evoke the ethereal beauty of natural forms, resembling elements as diverse as abandoned landscapes, ancient scribbles, and celestial bodies.

The tension between the fluid calmness of watercolor and the energetic rhythm of drawing is central to her work. Watercolor as a medium holds inherent qualities of intimacy, lightness, and spontaneity.

It's this interplay of opposites—a dance between control and surrender—that infuses Ana's paintings with life.

Artwork Archive had the chance to chat with Ana Žanić about her creative process, why she doesn't think about the audience while she's painting, and how Artwork Archive makes her art career more manageable!

Do you have a favorite or most satisfying part of your process?

The moment just before I start, standing in front of a blank piece of watercolor paper is full of potential.

I don't yet know where exactly I am going, but I am ready to take the plunge and be surprised! That is my favorite part of my creative process, and It never gets old.

 
The tension between fluidity and energy is a central theme in your work. How do you balance these opposing qualities when creating a painting?  

Most of my work consists of watercolor washes juxtaposed with the intricate mark-making.

I believe this balance results from respecting the materials' inherent qualities; I let the watercolor be fluid, transparent, and organic, and then contrast it with the drawing's natural rhythm and energy of line and mark-making.

The opposing qualities end up working in partnership and enhance each other. 

What impact do you hope your work will have on those who view it?  

What interests me in my work is capturing the moment, a sense of life and intimacy.

Even when I create on a large scale I want the result to be gentle and delicate—there are always tiny marks that draw you in, invite you to come very close, and be really intimate with the work.

I love when my art speaks to the viewer, on this quiet, intimate level, and opens up like a new mysterious portal to enter. However, I don't think about the audience when I create. During the process, I only listen to my voice.

Thinking about the audience is very dangerous for me—I find it both kills the joy of making and results in sub-par work.

 
You mention the importance of intuitive and spontaneous processes in your art practice. Could you elaborate on how you approach this aspect of your work?  

My art practice gives me the license to be unconcerned with the outcomes, and to enjoy a sense of flow.

I grew up in a creative home. There was a constant exchange of ideas and lots of music and humor.

My parents were direct, honest, spontaneous, and creative people. They brought me up without many boundaries. I believe my intuitive approach


What does success as an artist mean to you?  

The idea of success changes over time and with experience, and is, of course, very different for each individual.

When I was younger, being accepted to art school felt like an enormous success; I remember I felt like I was on top of the world.

Later, success meant having my first solo exhibition. I always wanted to know if I could make a living off my work, and when I started working with galleries, I felt that was the next big accomplishment.

However, the importance of staying true to my vision always was and still is a number one priority for me. I would say that, for me, success is being able to do what I love and also be recognized and rewarded for that work.

 
How do you handle creative blocks and find the motivation to keep creating?

I don't really experience creative blocks. I never get tired of the creative process. Of course, there can be various obstacles in the path that make it difficult to create.

If you are sick, caring for a newborn or a family member, if you don't have much time, if you don't have a studio space ... all those things are very real issues.

Whenever I find myself in front of an obstacle, I simplify my process. I simplify as much as I can and set very small yet attainable goals. Then I say to myself "One step at a time."

What advice would you give an artist who’s just starting out in their professional career?  

So many aspects of an artistic career are unpredictable and closely tied to specific circumstances, chance, and luck.  

Hone in on your own voice and listen to it with trust. Ultimately, your voice is your main guide.

(You can read the full interview by following the link to Artwork Archive's webiste here:

   "Why Ana Žanić Doesn't Think About Her Audience While Painting" )

 FRUIT

Arrowhead Room

Waubonsee Community College

 

 with Arrowhead Room  Art Coordinator Tonya Whitlock

 Fruit (from the exhibition text by Tonya Whitlock):

"Fruit features artwork by women who are also mothers. It is often taboo for fine artists to talk about themes of motherhood in their work. The unspoken thought is that you have you to choose between raising a family or being a serious artist. This exhibition celebrates women who choose to do both. "

When I first became a parent, I was shocked to realize there was, suddenly, no time for anything other than caring for my newborn.
I was healing from a C-section, suffering from insomnia, breastfeeding around the clock, changing diapers and keeping up with our baby's non-existent circadian rhythm.

 
Both my husband's and my family were overseas. At first, we invited my parents to help, and they stayed with us for three months. In retrospect, I would say their stay added more complexity to this new change than it was straight forward helpful. Most of these experiences are probably very typical of new parenthood. However, when one is an artist, there is a constant inner voice yearning to speak out, urging you to create. That voice doesn't pay attention to your current life circumstances. It does not know how to hit pause. It doesn't care how much time in a day you have available.

 
After weeks of zero studio time, I realized I needed to create a well-defined intentional project; a daily routine that would be attainable within many of my constraints. That is not how I naturally created art up to that point in my life.
The project was: create three hundred and sixty-five 9"x12" watercolors with a minimal color palette until Albert's first birthday.
I didn't need to create every day; I didn't need to follow any other "guidelines" other than create and make it happen. The task was small enough, yet over a course of one year the work, obviously, grew and a stack of accumulated pieces got taller and taller. It was a proof I was still creating. The physical proof was there for me to see and remind me that "I" was still there. I was a parent, a mom, but my inner "me" was there, firm, and solid.

 

Albert's Series (2010-2011)

The experience of creating Albert's series was incredibly empowering. It not only meant I was still doing what I needed to be doing, it also became a well of ideas for my next works.

 
After I finished the series (in time!), I submitted "Albert's series" as a proposal for a solo exhibition. I managed to show parts of this series in two separate solo exhibitions.

When my second child (Karl) was born, I knew he needed to have his own series. And that I needed it too.
The parameters - medium, format and 365 pieces were the same. It took me almost three years, though, to finalize Karl's series.  When I would stress out how I am not making it in time for Karl's first birthday, my older one, Albert would remind me, wisely:

"Mom, it doesn't matter how fast you do it, it just matters you finish it at some point, and you will". :-)

 

 Karl's Series (2015-2018)

 

 

 ARCADIA

Laura A. Sprague
Joliet Junior College
February 6-March 3, 2023
Artist Talk February 16, 2023

 

I have recently exhibited my work in a solo exhibition, titled “Arcadia” at Laura A. Sprague Art Gallery of Joliet Junior College.

The large open space and terrific lighting was an excellent opportunity for me to showcase a larger body of work; I decided to create a 13-year cross-section of my practice. I focused on the the most significant “markers” of those past thirteen years, while making sure I created a coherent exhibition grouping.

Thanks to great help from Suzanne Gorgas - Gallery Director and Professor at JJC, the resulting installation had a beautiful flow.

Here is a selection of the images from the exhibit, my artist talk and reception. 

At the bottom of the post is a walk-through video of "Arcadia".