The painting tradition is strong in Anne Packard’s family. Her grandfather was Max Bohm the turn of the century impressionist. Her Grandmother, great aunt, uncle, mother and daughter are all artists. Packard studied at Bard College and with Phillip Malicoat of Provincetown, MA. Robert Motherwell saw great talent in Packard and purchased twenty-three of her paintings for his collection.
Anne Packard grew up in Hyde park, New York, the daughter of a prominent physician. Although she had a desire to follow the strong painting tradition in her family, her parents coerced her into attending secretarial school. After working in New York for a while, she married an English teacher and raised five children in Princeton, New Jersey. Anne started painting at 30 when the youngest of her 5 children was 6 months old.
Anne divorced in the 1970’s. She moved to Provincetown, MA where she had spent many summers. She sold paintings on driftwood for $10.
Today, Packard is the most renowned artist of the Provincetown Art Colony. She owns the largest gallery in town. Her name is one of the most recognized in the Boston Art circles.
She paints horizons and atmospheres in a way intended to raise questions about the human spirit.
“My paintings have nothing to do with Nature. It’s something to do with forever going...the space behind the sky...the space behind the shadow. It’s an inner world of emotion and yearning. I yearn to express solitude.”