Ann Palmer was born in Somerset in the West of England, she studied Medicine in Edinburgh and spent 40 years working as a Public Health doctor. Ann lives in Rochester, Kent, UK; she began drawing and painting in 2007 and is largely self taught, taking her learning from classes, courses and well known artists
Ann works in oils using brush and palette knife often producing highly textural work. She looks to the coasts of Kent and Cornwall for inspiration, often painting standing on the pebbly beach watching the tide ebb and flow, the morning mist across the water, the light on the horizon, the clouds coming in from the west over London, and the light out to sea to the north and east. The low tide exposes sandbanks, pebbles, seafood for the gulls to seek. Recently Ann’s work has become larger, more abstract and expressionistic.
Ann works from home building her own canvases using exhibition quality stretcher bars and thick cotton canvas which she coats with acrylic gesso and turpsy red oil paint before applying several coats of artist quality oil paint, initially using a brush then adding texture with a palette knife.
The scene is inspired by visits to the coast, standing on the shores sketching, plein air painting, photographing and absorbing the sights and sounds of the movement of water and skies. The paintings are finished in the studio; the extent to which the painting is built with more impasto depends on the motif and mood. Ann’s style is impressionistic, representative tending towards some abstraction and expressionism.
Ann is a resident artist with Nucleus Arts in Rochester and exhibits locally in galleries and Art Fairs in London and the South East of England, and in galleries in the US, Italy, and Portugal.