Born 1940 in Bohemia, I was the youngest of four girls and the only one to have inherited the artistic talent of my father. My family had to move to Vienna after the war and I remember an emotional adieu on the Charles Bridge in Prague. My fondest images from my early years are of beautiful architechture, Renaissance castles and Baroque churches.

I always loved to paint, but was unable to afford to attend art school until I was married and moved to Paris in the sixties. There a whole new set of influences overwhelmed me - the Louvre, la "Civilisation Francaise" with their writers and prolific philosophers, and foreign artists like Dal and Picasso, who had chosen the "City of Lights" as their home. I had to transform this shock into paintings if I did not want to implode. So I decided to attend the Beaux Arts and Academy de la Grande Chaumire, both close to each other on the left bank of the River Seine.

After 30 years of painting I had a severe accident which prevented me from painting for six years. In that time, and with little patience to wait, I decided to take up sculpture instead.

By that time we had moved and were living on the Cte dAzur, close to the Italian border. The centre of Sculpture in Pietrasanta and Carrara was within easy reach and I felt a new form of inspiration for my early sculptures, one born out of Ancient Rome, Baroque of the Medici and the heart of religion.

Happily, this phase of my life continues and I am constantly grateful to be European and to have so many of my works on public display all over this continent.

I learned how to paint under the former director of the Academie of Beaux-Arts in Caracas, Maurice Mejaz, while studying at the Acadamy de la Grande Chaumiere in Paris.

Because of my three-dimensional way to draw my professors tried to direct me towards sculpture but to no avail. I wanted to paint and nothing else. Paris was a wonderful city in which to study art and at that time, in the early sixties it was alive with creativity. However, whatever influence I received in Paris, my Central European heritage soon came to the surface. The surrealism of Max Ernst, Ren Magritte, and Salvador Dali, my first great love in painting, gave gradually way to a more visionary approach, using soft, turner like, colors, close to Czech and Slovak artists and the Vienna school of Phantastic Realists.

I am committed to portaying the human duty towards protection of the innocent and poor, children and animals. This began with my paintings and has evolved further with my sculptures.

Anna Chromy