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Artwork by Anne Torry-Ballou will be on display at the Maser Gallery at Falmouth Community Television from August 28 through September 29, 2016. The public is invited to attend the Opening Reception: Sunday, August 28, from 3:00-5:00 pm. Anne Torry-Ballou was born in Maryland. She was thought to be “artistic” from the time she was in elementary school and often asked for art supplies for Christmas and used her allowance to purchase various sets to make arts and crafts. Born into a Navy family, Anne was used to travelling. Every three years their travels seemed to go in a triangular rotation from Maryland, to California, to Key West, and around again. When Anne’s father retired from the Navy, the family moved to Fairfield, CT. Anne’s high school years were spent at Kathleen Laycock Country Day School for girls (now Greens Farms Academy in Westport, CT) where she was formally introduced to various art media and their applications. Over the four years of high school, there were often field trips to galleries and museums in New York City. It was in the Museum of Modern Art that she first saw one of the paintings of water lilies by Monet which served as the inspiration for her work. Anne received an Associate of Arts degree at Cazenovia College (NY) and graduated cum laude. Her parents had not encouraged her to pursue art as a career and after several clerical office jobs, and attending a career counseling program, she moved to New York City in 1977 and began a career in operations analysis and work process redesign for Manufacturers Hanover Trust Bank. During this time she met and married her husband Tom and they started a family. They lived in Manhattan with their two sons, but decided to move to Anne’s old hometown of Fairfield, CT so the kids could grow up in the suburbs. There, an art studio was built on their property and Anne began painting in earnest, teaching art to children and exhibiting in shows. Raising children, taking care of invalid parents and painting and showing her work kept her busy, but she managed to fit in working toward her Bachelor of Arts at Fairfield University and taking supplementary art courses at Silvermine Art Center in New Canaan, CT. Anne and Tom first came to Falmouth with their children in 1988 on family vacations and visits. As their sons grew up and began their own adult lives, Anne and Tom decided to sell their Fairfield home and moved to West Falmouth in 2011. Anne paints local landscapes and usually travels with paint supplies. Her husband belongs to the Curling Club and it was this association that led to their April trip to Iceland for curling and to Anne’s painting a series of small studies of the Iceland landscape. “My technique is to photograph subjects in order to document placeholders and to stimulate the memory of the scene. Using the photo for reference, I create the work by layering color upon color until I feel I have captured my personal perception and emotion of a specific moment. Whether a flower, a mountain, the sea or a tree, I am always awed by the natural world. In my paintings I try to capture the light, color, emotion and energy first felt when a subject is discovered,” Anne explains. Among her many shows in and around New England, Anne has exhibited locally at the Cotuit Center for the Arts and the Falmouth Art Center. Her Maser Gallery show will include paintings of Northern Iceland as well as works from other travels, and Falmouth-inspired paintings. Maser Gallery Exhibit Hours: Sun-Mon: 2-10 p.m.; Tue-Wed-Thu: 10-10 p.m.; Fri: 10-6 p.m. Sat: Closed