Anna Perlin grew up in a small hamlet in the heart of rural Oxfordshire, and love of the countryside and British landscape has inspired of her work.
Graduating in Textile Design and Marketing in 2001, Anna initially started her career in retail whilst continuing to explore her love of painting through a local art society. She started to show her work in local exhibitions and after winning several awards she realised she wanted to take her passion for art further and has been a full-time artist ever since.
Anna has a distinctive style and her work has been exhibited widely in reputable galleries throughout the UK, including the Mall Galleries. Her work also reached the semi-finals of Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year in 2016, and in 2017 Anna won Artists and Illustrators Artist of the Year.
The artist explains: "The rolling fields, woodland and the changing colours and seasons on my doorstep is a huge inspiration for me to paint and create. The British landscape is endlessly beautiful and much of my work develops from something catching my eye when out walking- the shapes and colour combinations of branches and leaves, or hedges and fields. My aim is that the viewer feels they could step into an Autumn morning or a Spring Day straight from the room they are in.”
Texture is an important part of Anna’s work and after initially using oil paints she started exploring collage (chine-collé) with collagraph printmaking, and then decided to bring collage into her paintings. Now working with a mix of media that incorporates paint, oil pastel, charcoal and collage takes every painting in a unique and different direction.
“My textile background, and mum’s love of quilt making, led me to use material as part of the collage in my work which creates wonderful strong textural and colour effects as it soaks up and reflects light in a unique way. The quiet areas of my paintings are just as important though, pulling your focus onto the subject that originally captivated me."