Anna Bleker is a 20-year-old painter raised in Keller, Texas who specializes in photorealistic portraiture.  After picking up the brush at 15, she quickly progressed to detailed and psychologically complex works of friends, family, and the occasional riveting stranger.

Instead of rendering a fuzzy impression of a subject, Anna captures his or her small-but-distinctive eccentricities—from the glassy eyes of a meditative musician to the jasmine sun-made glisten on a girl’s hair.  Her style combines the photorealistic tendencies of Chuck Close with the intermittent personal touches of swirling hues and thick, textured brush strokes.  Using brushes and her fingers, she paints with primary-color-only acrylics and oils on canvas.

New to Austin (and adulthood in general), Anna is constantly enthralled with the town’s quirky residents and rich individuality.  A student at The University of Texas, she enjoys biking, graphic design, photography, and an afternoon iced tea—with an easel and a brush—by the lake.

Studio: Young Artists of Texas Gallery, yatagency.com

Exhibitions:
Art on 5th (Austin), 2007.
Hunting Art Prize gala at Houston Decorative Center, 2007
Young Artists of Texas Gallery (Keller, TX), 2006-present
Southlake Art in the Square (Southlake, TX), 2006, 2007
Timarron Country Club (Southlake, TX), 2006
Vino 100 (Dallas), 2006