Ann Rea has served as an international marketing consultant for a number of painters, mixed media artists, photographers, musicians, designers, wine makers, and even Fortune 500 companies, such as; E & J Gallo Winery and General Motors.  Rea initiated the concept of selling the same car for the same price removing dreaded haggling from the car buying experience, helping put the GM Saturn car on the map.  Armed with this success she eventually decided to build her own art business.  She turned a profit within one year and then decided to help other artists.  Ann offer’s limited consulting, one on one coaching by application,  and she teaches Artists Who THRIVE Seminars, including those sponsored by the Small Business Development Centers to a record numbers of attendees.

Ann Rea founded Artists Who THRIVE with a mission to empower other artists to thrive creatively and financially.

By sharing her experiences and insights she has guided a diverse number of artists from across the globe in building profitable businesses by developing effective marketing strategies and maintaining creative freedom.

Rea walks her talk. Her oil paintings, and her inspired business approach, have been featured on the “Fine Living” network, in “Fortune” magazine, and profiled in the book “Career Renegade.” Her talent is commended by American Art icon Wayne Thiebaud, and she has a growing list of collectors across North America and Europe.

In 1987, Ann Rea graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Art. Established in 1882, it is a highly esteemed member the Association of Independent Colleges of Art, a coalition of the leading art schools in the United States. Ann studied with the American art legacy Viktor Schreckengost.

But for over seven years Ann Rea didn’t paint or draw a single thing. She worked at a variety of anxiety producing jobs in high tech, investing, and disaster relief until an encounter with two stage-four breast cancer survivors made her realize that life is too short to avoid pursuing her dream.

Ann started using painting as an active meditation to alleviate her anxiety. She began creating serene still life in oils and then moved to plein air landscapes. The first vineyards she painted belonged to Dr. Harold Olmo, a grape breeder and viticulturist, who played a key role in the development of the California wine industry starting in the 1930s.

At the very end of 2003 Ann quit her job, sold her house and moved to the beach in San Francisco. With the encouragement of renowned painters Gregory Kondos and Wayne Thiebaud (American Art Icon) she was finally determined to make a living as a painter and to pursue her seemingly impossible dream.

After a bold move to San Francisco to paint full time she knew that she would have to become prolific in order to thrive. Ann began practicing neuro-feedback, medically aided meditation. Used by start athletes, performing artists, and even the Dali Lama to increase their brain’s alpha waves and to access states of optimal performance. So it’s no accident that collectors consistently comment that her paintings make them feel happy and calm, read the endorsements.

She also knew that she had to come up with a unique value proposition to thrive in business. So she created a blue ocean strategy helping wineries leverage their largest asset, the unique beauty of their vineyards. Winemakers take her on a tour of their vineyards where she plants her easel. Ann then paints the colors of their vineyards as they change with the seasons, creating authentic and timeless pieces so that wine enthusiasts can bring home a piece of the Wine Country.

This business savvy artist has painted several in several of California’s American Viticulture Areas, including: Alexander Valley, Central Valley, Dry Creek, Dunnigan Hills, Los Carneros, Napa Valley, Livermore Valley, Sonoma Coast, Sonoma Valley, Yountville, and the Shenandoah Valley.

Collectors select from the very best of her field studies, painted in over a dozen wine regions, and commission Rea to explore her naturally inspired colors on larger canvases.

Her subjects, always inspired by nature, not only include vineyards, but all natural landscapes, including private gardens, large-scale contemporary still life, and charcoal sketches on fine Arches French watercolor paper.

On the surface it seems that her subjects are vineyards but actually it is color inspired by natural ambient light, the unique visual essence of the terroir. Light, or color, changes with the atmosphere and temperature, which is why she creates each piece in the vineyards at specific times of day.

Blending old and new world traditions, Ann paints colors inspired by sunlight. With the direct mentorship she received from contemporary painter Wayne Thiebaud (an American Art icon), she paints in the timeless tradition of French Impressionists like Monet, plein air (in the open air). Ann even uses the same oil pigments as Van Gough from Old Holland Oil Works established in 1664.

Ann’s work is gaining increasingly collectible status as it continues to be featured in the national media, most recently on “Fine Living” and NBC’s “In Wine Country”, and in “The Wine Enthusiast” and “Fortune” magazines. Read about her blue ocean business strategy in “Career Renegade” by Jonathan Fields, published by Random House. Her talent is commended by Wayne Thiebaud (an American Art icon) and her work is acquired by a growing list of collectors and celebrities across the US, Canada, and Europe, including, Bob Proctor, host of the movie The Secret.

Her book, “‘Colors of Terroir’, an artist’s tour of Sonoma”, a collection of her Sonoma vineyard paintings, will be published next year.

Ann is an active member of the:
Luxury Marketing Council (LUX) – San Francisco Chapter
Women and WineSense – Napa/Sonoma Chapter