62 Artists & Illustrators
DEVELOPING PHOTOS
While she dismisses this as “just a
great story”, it is clear that the scene
contains many of the key elements in
her art – boats, harbours, solitary
figures, moonlight and twinkling lights
in the distance – that she has since
spent many years using photographs
to help her recreate.
Anne’s interest in photography
began during her time as a
commercial artist, completing
reportage illustration commissions
at RAF Greenham Common and with
the army in Belfast. “I’ve always been
really interested in photographers’
work as an art form,” she says.
“I really admire Don McCullen and
those war photographers, because at the time there was
a sense of things moving that way. I found limits in my own
work then too, I wanted to say more and I couldn’t. I really
admired the way the photographers didn’t have to bring all
the obviousness to it. That helped me. I realised I could
use lighting and manipulate things a bit.”
Rather than always relying on her own reference images,
many of Anne’s paintings are initially inspired by found
photography – vintage prints picked up at car boot fairs
and flea markets, or bought on eBay.
“I love old photographs, she says. “I love that they
are frayed at the edges and you can tell where they come
from. There’s that timeless quality and such a beauty to
them that I am drawn towards. There are two or three
particular photographs that I have kept for years that I see
people in that I’ve known. And now those photos are worn
and ripped a bit around the edges where I’ve held them.”
That personal attachment, she believes, is hugely
important to the success of a painting. “When I’m
teaching, I want the students to get that same feeling if
they’re using photographs. I want them to use a photo as
a springboard because there’s something in there that is
grabbing them. By selecting that photo, you are making a
choice – and if there’s a reason for that, now you’ve got
something to build on.”LEFT Interior,
charcoal on paper,
19.1x19.1cm
BELOW LEFT Anne’s
early ink sketches
for Interior