Bright, cheerful paintings will warm the Gladstone Community Center during the often gloomy and cold months of December and January.

The center, 6901 N. Holmes St., is preparing to feature Anne Garney as the next artist in a series of rotating art exhibits that feature local artists. Garney’s bright oil paintings will don the walls of the center beginning with an event from 6 to 8 p.m. Dec. 1. They will hang through the end of January.

The community center has featured a different local artist, or group of artists, approximately every six weeks since the program began last year.

The walls of Garney’s studio, which is also her home, in Kansas City North are littered with examples of her work, most of which will be on display at the community center for the public to see.

Garney paints exclusively with oil on canvas. She starts each piece with a red painted canvas, which gives each completed painting a unique quality when finished. All of her work is done in bright colors that give her realistic, to scale paintings of landscapes an abstract-like quality.

On her Web site, Garney describes her personal artistic style as representational, contemporary fauve expressionism and herself as a landscape painter and colorist.

“I’d always been a fan of the expressionists,” Garney said during a tour of her studio.

Most of the artist’s paintings are painted on site during travels around the world. Her studio features paintings of the Virgin Islands, Paris, Mexico and Venice. She also has an affinity for painting Kansas City — her hometown — which have also proved popular in the Kansas City art market.

She takes canvases on every trip she takes, except when she visits her mother in Arizona, and has perfected the art of traveling around the world with large canvases, paints and other supplies.

Garney started painting full time in 1999 to fulfill something she had been considering for a while.

“I wanted to see what would happen with my art if I just painted for six months to a year,” she said.

She said her jumpstart into her artistic career happened when she was given a place to stay in the country of Monaco for eight months where she lived and painted for the duration.

She has now done 50-plus art shows in 10 years and has work hanging in several galleries.

To see examples of Garney’s work, visit www.annegarneypaintings.com or visit the Gladstone Community Center starting Dec. 1.

Staff writer Meagan O’Donnell can be reached at 389-6606 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .