Ann Lees

About Ann

Ann Lees is Victoria's mother, and the first painter in the family.

Born and raised in Cheshire, England, Ann studied French at London University and lived in Paris, Poitiers and Madrid, spending her free hours in their museums and galleries. She later made her home in Wilmington, North Carolina, where she became a devoted plein air painter, setting up her easel outdoors to catch the light on the Carolina marshes, shores and gardens.

She is drawn to what others pass by: old forgotten buildings, weathered boats, a garden at a fleeting moment. She paints quickly, for mood rather than detail. Largely self-taught, she has studied with nationally known painters, works in oils as well as pastel, watercolor and gouache, and has shown widely along the Carolina coast, including a first place in oil at Arts By The Shore on Oak Island.

A fixture of the Burgwin-Wright Paint-Out in downtown Wilmington, she has painted in it every year since it began in 2013. In 2016 her painting of the house's orchard, “Sundial Pomegranate Tree,” was chosen as the poster image for the following year's event.