Annette Cyr grew up in the intense blue-green skies and ocean views of Santa Barbara, among the bougainvillea and sea cliff neon ice plants with one peacock making occasional surprise appearances in her backyard. The desert also had a profound influence, with its crisp yellows, reptiles, burnt browns and bugs. It was here in nature she realized one could not have light without dark. It was true in every powerful thing she saw, particularly in that late afternoon California light: deep blue-green shadows with shafts of bright colors bursting through.

Cyr spent her senior year in Arezzo, Italy, as an AFS International foreign exchange student, where she was immersed in the art and culture of Tuscany. She attended the University of California at Santa Barbara and spent her junior year studying film and art in Paris, drawing from the sculpture in museums and studying every film in the archives of Cinemateque. The Europe years gave her direct contact with the grand tradition of European painting with which she has been mischievously working ever since.

Returning to UCSB, Cyr was accepted into the College of Creative Studies. Upon graduation, she was awarded the Richard O. Anderson Scholarship to attend the renowned Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Skowhegan, ME.

Cyr received her MFA in Painting from Yale University, and upon graduation was awarded Yale’s Winternitz Fellowship. Cyr’s painting has been awarded numerous awards including an NEA Fellowship in Painting, as well as grants from Art Matters, Inc. and NYSCA, and artist residencies at Yaddo and MacDowell art colonies.

Cyr has been living and painting in New York City since receiving her MFA. She currently is Lead, Faculty of Art and Assistant Professor of Art at National University, San Diego, CA, and divides her time between New York and California.

Along with painting, Cyr has expanded into digital filmmaking. Her recent films include: Late Bloomers, Adult Beginner ballet, a documentary on her ballet class in New York City and Evangeline, a film poem, in collaboration with composer Robert Hart, inspired by Longfellow’s poem and current deportation issues. Currently in production are two video works, one inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy and another by her NYC/San Diego life.