About
I am a Portland, Oregon oil painter. My favorite subjects are people, animals and whatever lies between. Drifting between realism and surrealism, I love recreating vintage America, re-imagining the lives and stories of the characters on my canvas or just exploring the emotional color of faces.
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I am inspired by past eras. My love of vintage things was instilled in me at an early age. When my family visited my grandparents, we would explore the local antique shops and flea markets. My love of vintage treasure hunts and the thrill of the “find” has carried over into my artwork, and now I am always on the lookout for striking images and themes from bygone days. As I explore the magic and beauty of scenes from past lives—historic or recent—the addition of imaginative or unexpected elements creates a narrative that emerges on my canvas.
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My attraction to faces, people and the stories behind them is a consistent theme in my art. My focus on facial features is a way of working through a mild deficiency in my own ability to recognize faces (prosopagnosia) and exploring what makes each person unique. I enhance the stories behind the faces in my paintings with details, textures and/or colors that provide clues about how I see subjects’ psyches and moods.
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Anna Magruder is a recipient of a 2014 RACC grant for her "Oregon's Painted History" series and was honored with a 2015 Artist Residency at the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation in Taos. In 2012 she was a featured artist on Oregon Art Beat—OPB's Emmy Award-winning statewide arts series. Her art appears in numerous publications and book covers.
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Anna Magruder Art & Illustration -- specializing in portraits, whimsy and historic surrealism
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Historia: Astoria's Layered History Article
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