Sea and Sky at Whitstable Painting

Ann paints land, sky and seascapes, often working directly out of doors in front of the scene. Ann brings her sketches back and composes them, collaging them into a large sketchbook for reference. Her larger paintings are developed in the studio from her experiences en plein air, sketches, notes and photographs. Ann lives in Rochester in the South East of England. She has a doctorate in public health medicine and worked for the NHS for 40 years. She paints at home in her Garden Studio and in Studio One at Nucleus Arts in Chatham. She has been drawing and painting from 2007, taking up oils 12 years ago, and recently developing her practice with mixed media aiming to produce more abstract and exciting work. Ann gains inspiration from her travels to the coasts of Cornwall as well as her home county of Kent. She developed her reputation as a plein air painter; working in the vineyards of the Loire Valley and around the Kent Coast where she worked out of a beach hut in Whitstable until joining Nucleus Arts in Chatham, Kent. Ann now has a studio in Rochester at the Halpern Pop Gallery and Nucleus Cafe where she exhibits; she also works from home painting in her conservatory and using her Attic Studio for preparing canvases and framing and storing her work. Currently Ann is working on a series of shoreline, sea and skyscape paintings around the Kent Coast and Cornwall. Ann builds her own canvases using stretcher bars and 12oz cotton duck. then prime it with 3 coats of acrylic primer and/or gesso. Ann is using mixed media for her recent paintings, several layers of paint, pastel, drawing with pencil and charcoal. The painting may be finished in oil. Ann’s style is impressionistic, representative tending towards some abstraction and expressionism.