Anna Sponer, nee Chiarelli, is a self taught Canadian artist, born and currently living in Hamilton, Ontario. Her parents, Salvatrice and Antonino Chiarelli, immigrated to Canada in the 1940’s from Racalmuto, Sicily. She is the only daughter and the youngest in a family of six children. Raised in the predominantly Italian "north end" of Hamilton, Anna’s interest in art arose from her colorful working class surroundings. She began drawing at an early age spending many hours observing and re-creating images on paper. Later in life, she visited many prominent art galleries in the U.S., Germany, Austria, Hungary and Italy; and viewed the paintings and sculptures created by some of the world's greatest classical and contemporary artists. Her artistic proclivity was further nurtured by her fascination with impressionism.
Anna Sponer began her gallery in 2004, by first exploring charcoal as a medium followed by soft black and white pastel and incorporating color shortly after. The majority of her latest art work is now created in oil paint on canvas.
In Anna's gallery, a diversity of artistic subjects are displayed together with the many portrait paintings of numerous persons, including works completed for three members of the Canadian Woman's National Soccer Team.
Since 2004, Anna has held numerous exhibitions throughout the Greater Hamilton and Toronto Area and has been commissioned to create original paintings for individuals and corporations in the United States, Europe and across Canada.
Her diverse collection of paintings represent the impressionistic style with a touch of expressionism. She has a unique way of visualizing and creating exceptional works of art. By utilizing her images, studying and exposing them to the public they become real, personal and in depth. Anna's treatment of lighting and shadows, emphasized in her portraits and other artistic subjects, dynamically embrace and transcend the expression of human emotions.
Anna Sponer, nee Anna Chiarelli, has been a member of McMaster Museum of Art, Women's Art Association of Hamilton (WAAH) and Arts Hamilton visual arts committee. From 2006 to 2009 Anna has partaken in evaluating art work submitted by local artists for prospective exhibitions presented in the Arts Hamilton Gallery. She had also judged visual art for the "Street Canvas 2007-2008" and 2011 City of Hamilton King William Street Art Walk Bench Design Competition held by the Downtown Hamilton Business Improvement Area; instructed and demonstrated her art at Mother Teresa's Elementary School in Hamilton (2005); was a nominee for the City of Hamilton's 2004 Arts Awards and actively supports various charities.
Anna's paintings - presented in The Hamilton Spectator, the Hamilton Mountain News, the Stoney Creek News and aired on CHCH-TV community events covering the 23rd International Spring Art Exhibition, organized by Hamilton Folk Arts Heritage Council; and shown during the Hamilton Literary Awards (2007) presented by Arts Hamilton.
