About Me I am a Semi-Abstract landscape Artist based in Shropshire, UK. I completed both my BA and MA degrees in Fine Art at Aberystwyth University. I use my artwork to capture my memories of the landscape. My main intent is to create atmosphere, emotion and movement from my experience outdoors. I am interested in observing natural compositions and the effect that the light, weather and atmosphere have on the colours and the organic shapes of the raw landscape. When painting, I like to imagine what it would be like to be the elements, which helps me connect with the subject. My most recent Series titled ‘January Snow’ explore the way that snow abstracts the landscape. The paintings are inspired by a winter walk up the Long Mynd on New Years day 2021.
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I enjoy re-imagining the landscape through my eyes and tend to eliminate mentions of mankind. I often feel insignificant in relation to the natural world and I aim to show the power and beauty of nature alone. My current work is starting to shift towards Abstraction, and I have always been interested in the area where both Abstraction and Representation meet. I class my ongoing work as semi-abstract as both abstraction and representation play equal roles in the paintings.
I continue to be inspired by American Tonalism, and the subtleties to the works and admire the colour pallets and the intense dark to light contrasts that create depth. I love how a single mark can make all the difference to a painting, as well as how paint can create an image without having to give all the answers. I particularly appreciate the work of James Abbott McNeil Whistler, for his ability to create mood and atmosphere with minimal means while allowing the paint, and marks made to live. I enjoy the puzzle of painting, reworking compositions and letting the paint reveal an image. I am currently looking at creating distance in my work through paint application, where a subtle drip of paint can help move the eye around the image, and I hope to resolve these ideas I am exploring in my future work. Anna Greenwood |
MY JOURNEY
Painting in My Grandads Studio, 2006.
I have been surrounded by art from a young age. My Grandfather is a working professional welsh landscape artist and has been a huge inspiration of mine. He has spent a lot of his art career teaching art classes, and I can remember tagging along to some when I was younger. We have often gone out sketching the North Wales landscape together, and these young memories continue to feed into my work. During my teen years, I was living in Spain, surrounded by a wide variation of landscape, from the calmness of the sea to the great heights of the Alpujarran Mountains. My Spanish Art teacher was very encouraging, and pushed me to enjoy creating art, which then continued by my teachers back in the UK during my GCSE’s, A- Levels and my Degrees. Painting hasn’t been something that I have always done. I used to do a lot of mixed media work, including wire sculptures of wildlife, and free hand embroidery of portraiture. Before my degree, I studied textiles at A-level, and enjoyed designing and making repeat patterns. Besides painting, I also spent a lot of time working in soft pastel, charcoal, pencil and biro creating commission portraits.
Since completing my MA in Painting I have been working professionally as an Artist from my studio in the garden in the Shropshire Hills. I continue to paint my life and try to capture my experience outdoors. When I am painting in the studio, I always have music on and I find it very difficult to work without it. However, when painting on location I prefer to listen to the natural environment. For instance, when painting a seascape outdoors, I pay attention to the sounds of the waves crashing, people talking, cars passing, etc.. and try and feed this information in to the painting. I like to try and create a sense of place, rather than a pure representation of the subject, and sound is something that I feel helps add atmosphere and mood to the work. Although cliché, art is a huge part of my life. Whether I’m looking at art in galleries or on social media, painting in the studio, or just walking to the shops, I experience art daily. What I enjoy most about art is how we get to see the world through the eyes of the artist. I love to see art that shows the beauty of the ugly, or something I see every day, but have never seen it in such way. It inspires me.
EXHIBITIONS
2020- Bwlch Nant y Arian. Duo Exhibition. Aberystwyth, Wales- POSTPONED
2020- RCA Open Exhibition 2020. Royal Cambrian Academy, Conwy, Wales.
2019- MA Degree Show- Journey to Sea. School of Art, Aberystywth Wales.
2019- MA Degree Show, May 2019. School of Art, Aberystywyth Wales.
2019- RCA Open Exhibition 2019, Royal Cambrian Academy. Conwy, Wales.
2018- Mid Wales Art Centre
2018- Extravaganza. Independent Student Exhibition, Open House. Aberystwyth, Wales.
2018- Degree Show, School of Art. Aberystwyth Wales.
2018- Mynd House. Church Stretton, England.
2016- RCA, The Open & Young Wales, 2016. Royal Cambrian Academy. Conwy, Wales.
2015- A-level Show. Oldbury Wells School. Bridgnorth, England.
AWARDS
Welsh Young Art Piece, 2016. Royal Cambrian Academy, Conwy.
EDUCATION
Aberystwyth School of Art 2019, MA
Aberystwyth School of Art 2018, BA
2020- Bwlch Nant y Arian. Duo Exhibition. Aberystwyth, Wales- POSTPONED
2020- RCA Open Exhibition 2020. Royal Cambrian Academy, Conwy, Wales.
2019- MA Degree Show- Journey to Sea. School of Art, Aberystywth Wales.
2019- MA Degree Show, May 2019. School of Art, Aberystywyth Wales.
2019- RCA Open Exhibition 2019, Royal Cambrian Academy. Conwy, Wales.
2018- Mid Wales Art Centre
2018- Extravaganza. Independent Student Exhibition, Open House. Aberystwyth, Wales.
2018- Degree Show, School of Art. Aberystwyth Wales.
2018- Mynd House. Church Stretton, England.
2016- RCA, The Open & Young Wales, 2016. Royal Cambrian Academy. Conwy, Wales.
2015- A-level Show. Oldbury Wells School. Bridgnorth, England.
AWARDS
Welsh Young Art Piece, 2016. Royal Cambrian Academy, Conwy.
EDUCATION
Aberystwyth School of Art 2019, MA
Aberystwyth School of Art 2018, BA
"If I could say it in words there would be no reason to paint."
- Edward Hopper.