Anne Nelson Sweat

“Creativity is not only a life goal, but it has also always helped to define and shape 

who I am. 

When painting, I strive to convey light, form and emotion and often think of my work as music on canvas.   

For the painter, light is everything, for light and shadow show contrast, character and mood.   Together they can reveal the dichotomy of nature; the seen and unseen.

I have found over the years that painting with oils and drawing with pastels  have 

helped me to express human emotion and my visions better than other mediums.

My best work comes when I make a deep connection with my subject matter, 

be it people or nature, there is a feeling I get about what I want to express. 

Mingled with my love for music and dance, my art has emerged as a method of       

reaching out for the rhythms and symphonies of the Universe.   

Reaching out is also a way of reaching within, of finding spiritual content and meaning.

I try to hold onto a childlike perspective, as the process of discovery is such inspiration for my soul.    I paint with a great love of people and nature and with great respect for our ever changing environment,  seeker of the beautiful and the sublime… 

Nature is always on the edge grappling with change, as often we humans are.  

I choose to celebrate these forces through a fascination and appreciation or the visual and spiritual splendor of our world… and always a student. “         A. Nelson Sweat

Long time Austin artist Anne Nelson Sweat; a fourth generation Texan born 

and raised in Beaumont Texas was brought up in a large family with a strong 

tradition of creativity in architecture, design, and the arts, both performing and visual. 

She credits her parents for always making sure she and her siblings had 

crafty things to do and her beloved grandparents for making sure the grandkids always had coloring books and Crayons.     

“I can’t even imagine what my life would have been like without Crayons!

Some of my earliest childhood memories are of laying on the floor coloring away…learning to draw as I experimented with drawing in and out of the lines, and discovering all about color”.  

At an early age, Anne began to study music and was dedicated to playing the cello in orchestra throughout high school.  In 1980, she began college studies at Lamar University where she took a drawing class and quickly went into the Arts program under the direction of eminent professor, the late Jerry A. Newman.  

Life drawing and painting became her passion, a language she will always seek to master and understand.  

Anne’s love for capturing character and painting children took her in the direction

of becoming known as a portrait artist, taking on commissions in college from fellow students to buy art supplies, and to pay for traveling expenses to study Art in Italy.  

Her career in portraiture was launched from there.

In her early twenties, she traveled abroad for the first time and spent a summer in Rome while studying Art and traveling throughout Italy and Paris, France.  Seeing another part of the world and so many of the great masterpieces, sculptures and architecture of Europe greatly influenced her perspective on life, Fine Arts and the world at large.  

In 1985, Anne received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Lamar University.  After graduation she continued to take on private commissions consisting of portraits and landscapes in both oils and pastels.

Anne established a professional studio in the early 90’s in the Scarborough Building on 6th and Congress located in downtown Austin. 

Anne’s most noted works are two 4’ x 6’ paintings that are installed in the lobby of the historic Driskill Hotel in downtown Austin, commissioned in 1998 during the last major restoration.  One depicts a historic ballroom scene, and the other depicting a grand event when, Colonel Jesse Driskill brought in the very first interstate telephone line to Texas.  Three thousand people waited in line that historic day back at the turn of the century to listen in on a two-party line which was strung from Austin to Dallas, and then to Memphis.  Both paintings were highlighted in one of Samantha Brown’s episodes of “Great Hotels” when she was in Austin filming an episode.

Anne’s portraits, landscapes and figurative works in oils and pastels can be found in private and corporate collections throughout Texas, thirty states in United States, Canada, Prince Edward Island, Austria, Australia, France, the Netherlands and Sweden.   

Her work has been published in Art & Antiques, People Magazine, The Artist’s Magazine and with New York Graphics.  

Anne Nelson Sweat is a member of the Portrait Society of America, Oil Painters of America-Signature Member and the American Impressionist Society.  

For the past many years, Anne’s work has primarily been sold to collectors and on commission. 

Born 1961, Beaumont, Texas 

1980  Graduated from high school and began studies at Lamar University, Beaumont, TX

1982  Awarded Mamie McFaddin Ward Scholarship to study Art, Lamar University.

1983  Study Abroad, Rome, Italy

          Awarded Mamie McFaddin Ward Scholarship to study Art, Lamar University.

          Teaching assistantship in Life Drawing & Painting, Lamar University Art Dept

1984  Teaching assistantship in Life Drawing & Painting, Lamar University Art Dept

1985  Teaching assistantship in Life Drawing & Painting, Lamar University Art Dept

          Bachelor of Fine Arts, Lamar University, Beaumont, Texas

1985  Taught drawing classes for Museum of Southeast Texas 

           Married to Brian S. Sweat, moved to Cornwall Bridge, Connecticut 

1986   Studio in Cornwall Bridge, Connecticut 

1987   Studio in Cornwall Bridge, Connecticut 

           Moved to Austin, Texas  September ’87  

1988   Christopher Nelson Sweat was born 

1989   Lamar University Alumnae Exhibition at Dishman Art Gallery, Beaumont, Texas 

1990   Established American Portrait Painter Studios, Austin, Texas

1992   Published in The Artist Magazine, May issue  Article on Anne’s pastel technique

1994   Established Studio in the Scarborough Building, 6th & Congress, Austin, Texas

1995   Illustrated and Published  “Charlie’s Challenge”  

           children’s book on a child with learning “differences”, written by A. Root and L. Gladden. 

1995   Featured in People’s Magazine 

1995   Guest on Leeza Gibbon’s Talk Show, Hollywood, CA

1996   3rd Place Winner,  Oil Painters of America Fifth National Juried Exhibition, Greenhouse Gallery 
           Published with New York Graphics

           Featured Artist,  Artworks Gallery, Austin, Texas

1997   Membership into American Society of Portrait Artists

           Austin Chamber Music CD Cover Artist

           Fiesta Arts Festival, Laguna Gloria Art Museum, Austin, Texas,  Selected Exhibiting Artist

           Group show, Gallery of the Hills, Austin, Texas “Texas, A Place in My Heart… Art about Texas” 

1998   Poster Artist for Victoria Symphony Society  50th Anniversary Celebration

           Artist in Residence:  Victoria Cultural Counsel , Victoria, Texas

           Fiesta, Laguna Gloria Art Museum, Austin, Texas  Selected Exhibiting Artist  

           Commissioned to paint two 4’ x 6’ paintings for the lobby  of the historic Driskill Hotel, Austin. TX

2001   Austin Museum of Art:   Invited Artist , Art Ball III,  Exhibition & Auction

2004   Membership into Portrait Society of America

2009   Selected Juror for Oil Painters of America Western Regional Exhibition 

2010   Dishman Art Museum,  Group show Tribute to the late Professor Emeritus Jerry A. Newman   

           Art Museum of Southeast Texas:   One Woman Show “Visual Perceptions”

2011   3rd Place winner, Plein-Air Invitational Competition  “Paint the Town Marble Falls”,   Marble Falls, TX

2012  1st  Place winner, Plein-Air Invitational Competition  “Paint the Town Marble Falls”,   Marble Falls, TX

2013   Portrait Society of America | Cecelia Beaux Forum Mentoring Committee 

2014  1st  Place winner, Plein-Air Invitational Competition  “Paint the Town Marble Falls”,   Marble Falls, TX

           Portrait Society of America | Cecelia Beaux Forum Mentoring Committee

2015   Portrait Society of America | Cecelia Beaux Forum Mentoring Committee 

2015   Group Show, “Women Painting Women”,Georgetown Art Center, Georgetown, Texas   

2019   Atelier Dojo Faculty Art Exhibit, Georgetown Art Center, Georgetown, Texas 

2020   Selected Juror for Oil Painters of America Western Regional Exhibition

Private Collections:

Her works can be found in private collections throughout Texas and in thirty States in the United States, Canada, Prince Edward Island, Austria, Australia, France, Ireland, the Netherlands and Sweden 

Corporate Collections:

The Driskill Hotel, Austin, Texas   Two 48” x 72” oil paintings in the Lobby of the Driskill. 

Bickerstaff Heath Pollan & Caroom LLP

Bracewell & Guiliani LLP 

Graves, Dougherty, Hearon & Moody

Prosperity Bank, Lakeway, Texas 

Membership:

American Impressionist Society

Oil Painters of America - Signature member

Portrait Society of America

Publications:

The Artist’s Magazine, May 1992

People magazine 1995

Art & Antiques Magazine 

Big Apple Parent  

New York Graphics

Jeep Magazine, featured Plein Air painting 2005

Artist Residency:

Rome, Italy 1983 

*Victoria Cultural Counsel, Victoria, Texas 1998    

 Artistic Director of mural project with youth in Victoria Regional Detention Center. 

*Ghost Ranch,  Estudio Corazón, August 2021 

Guest artist:

Austin Pastel Society  2003

Lamar University Fine Arts Dept.  Demonstrating in Painting and Pastels   1990-1994

Highland Lakes Creative Arts “The Salon”, Guest demonstrating artist, Martha Stafford Fine Art  20

Books:

Charlie’s Challenge , illustrator and publisher.1995 

Teaching:

1983 - 1985   Teaching Assistantship, painting and life drawing, Lamar University  

           1985   Drawing Classes,  Museum of Southeast Texas 

1995 - 2021  Mentoring ~ private lessons in painting in oil and pastels, drawing and portraiture. 

2018- 2019   Faculty member of Atelier Dojo, Austin, Texas  teaching painting, portraiture and life drawing.

Education:  

BFA  Lamar University, Beaumont, Texas 1985

Workshops:

Richard Whitney,  Portrait study, San Francisco Academy of Arts College, 1997

Scott Christensen, Plein-Air landscape painting, Jackson Hole, Wyoming  Spring 2001

Nelson Shanks, Figurative painting, New York Academy of Art, New York City  2001

Scott Christensen, Advanced landscape, Teton Meadow Ranch, Wyoming  2004

Paul Lucchesi, Sculpting the Figure in Terra Cotta, Austin Sculpture Academy, 2006

Philippe Faraut, Sculpting the Portrait, Austin Sculpture Academy, Texas 2006  

Philippe Faraut, Sculpting the Portrait, Longview Museum of Art, Longview, TX 2008 

Robert Liberace, Painting the Figure, Scottsdale Artists School, 2012

John Coleman, Sculpting the Figure,  Scottsdale Artists School, 2013 

Thomas Schaller, Water Color, Waterloo Watercolor Group, 2014