Artist: Anne Aspinall

Artist’s Statement

Anne Aspinall was born in Manchester in 1949, and trained at Manchester College of Art. She joined the Longden Gallery & Workshops in 1986 as a printmaker specialising in etching. From 1988 to 1989 she travelled extensively in Europe and North Africa where the effects of strong sunlight on the desert landscape and the rich texture and patterns of the architecture and textiles made a lasting impression.

Anne’s work is a personal response to the patterns and rhythms inherent in the landscape and the subtle changes of light and colour through the seasons. She has been profoundly influenced by the work of the Scottish painters William Gillies and Barbara Rae as well as the Catterline landscapes of Joan Eardley. In addition to the intense colours of Morocco, her current subject matter encompasses the hills and valleys of North Wales, the Peak District, where she lives and works, and the coastline around the British Isles.

Her paintings start with the monoprint process where ink is applied to a perspex plate using rollers. This enables transparent layers of colour to be built up and texture is added by working back into the ink using stencils, brushes and rags. The image is then transferred onto paper by use of an etching press.

When the inks have dried, Anne works into the monoprint with chalk, oil pastel and paint to achieve the final mixed media painting.