IN THE STUDIO
40 Artists&Illustrators
leastbecausethemajorityofher
sittersareclosefriendsandfamily.
Yettheyarechosen,shesays,not
becauseofa moremeaningful
connection,butratherthatsheis
morecomfortableaskingthemtodo
things.“I don’twantmysitterstofeel
awkwardatall,”sheexplains.“I want
themtoberelaxedwhileI’mpainting,
it’squiteimportant.Withmyfamily,
I canmakethemdoa reallyawkward
poseandtheytotallyknowwhy.”
It helpsthatherfamilyis
particularlycreativeandsupportive.
AniawasborninKidderminsterin
1990 andasa childsheremembers
therealwaysbeinga tinofpenson
thetablefordrawing.Herparents
werebothcreative– herfatherpainted watercolours of birds, her
mother made traditional Polish folk
designs on cabinets – and she is
proud to be following in the footsteps
of her great grandfather Edward
Trojanowski, a famous painter and
designer from Krakow. Closer to
home, her older brother Thom and
his wife Stevie Dix are also artists and
the couple share a studio together
at Asylum. They regularly pop by forencouragement and critiques.
“Their opinion doesn’t hurt as much,”
Ania says with a smile.
In fact, Ania’s sister-in-law features
in her best-known work, A Portrait of
Two Female Painters, which won the
Young Artist Award at the BP Portrait
Award 2018. It’s a fresh and stylish
depiction of two artists at rest, the
angles of the rug, the daybed and the
two artists’ many limbs all adding toABOVE Ania pre-
mixes skin colours
in piping bags
TOP AND FAR RIGHT
Inside her Asylum
Studios workspace
TOP RIGHT Untitled,
oil on canvas,
160x180cm