Anna Greenwood

2001-2002 Foundation Diploma in Art & Design, Norwich School of Art & Design
2001-2004 B.A.Hons in Fine Art Painting, Falmouth College of Arts

Every day in her lunch break, Anna Greenwood walks on the desolate stretch of beach near Shingle Street, cloe to Hollesley Bay Prison where she works. Fascinated by the vast expanse of beach ahead and marshland behind, she comes her to draw and sketch, compelled too, by a need to make the most of every minute.

In these landscapes of solitary beauty, fluid drawings, and the gentle portraits of Holly the boxer, there seems to be a combination of both fragility and intensity. The overcast skies, broken gates and windswept settings of the landscapes are emotionally powerful reactions to her environment, becoming more expressions of mood than simple depictions of place. The images of Holly in the landscape, the dog becomes almost human; a near-mythical creature reaching down, reflective and still, or poised and waiting, ready to pounce.

What all these works share is a confidence drawn from determination, and the strange contradiction of being both powerful and afraid, just as one might be at the beginning of a great adventure...

Gabby Dawnay April 2009