About Ann

I am a professional artist, working from my home studio in a small village, near the East Anglian city of Peterborough. I have been painting for many years and have pictures in private collections at home and abroad.

My work principally consists of landscape paintings and portraiture, much of the latter painted to commission. I work in a variety of media, depending on the subject, but mainly acrylic, pastel and watercolour.

Mood and light are increasingly important motivators for me. I want the viewer to be drawn into a painting - to understand how it would feel to be there inside the view. What is the season, the weather, the time of day? How does the light fall? Although my work is representational, and often quite detailed, it is these more ephemeral things that I want to convey.

I am also hugely inspired by the natural world. Although I love to visit historic cities and buildings, I am most at home in the world of mountains, lakes, coastline, forests and countryside. When I see a beautiful view I want to capture it - not in a picture-postcard way, but in the hope that some of my wonder might make it onto the paper or canvas.

Trees have featured significantly in my work recently. I have always loved the way the low sunlight shows up the silhouettes of bare trees in the winter and this has resulted in a series of sunset paintings. Deep forests, with occasional shafts of sunlight or sky, have also been a particular inspiration and I continue to paint the magical, untouched, beech forests of New Zealand.

I very much enjoy the challenges and rewards of portrait painting. Although the results are, of course, totally different from landscape paintings, portraits also need to convey more than the likeness of the sitter. A successful portrait can show something of the personality or mood of the person, as well as the experiences that may be reflected on their face.

I sometimes paint portraits from life, but quite often from photographs, either because the subject is too busy, or because they are too young to sit still for long. As many of my commissioned portraits are of children, photos can be a very useful alternative to repeated sittings!

I always use high quality paints, papers and canvases. This helps to ensure the vibrance and longevity of my work.

For more information on the methods and materials I use as a professional artist to create paintings, click here.

For links to other useful information and websites, click here.