Annie studied fine art- print making at art college in London during the 1970’s, and then went on to teach art at secondary level. She took time out to raise a family and went into Adult Education, teaching, art and then stained glass for just over twenty years, from 1998- 2019.This was punctuated by the additional work teaching disaffected young adults in Cardiff.
It may be an overworn cliche to say that Annie’s work is inspired by nature , because that surely applies to most artistic endeavours to a greater or lesser degree. She has been fortunate to have lived in the Welsh countryside for most of her adult life; Nevertheless, living in the countryside during lockdown when the one thing that she could do was to walk for hours on end across fields and through woodland, seemed to strengthen a connection and fascination for the forms she met meandering along the Marches of south Wales. Such forms and sights that are ubiquitous to the structure of the Welsh landscape.
Several years ago, Annie’s husband had just undergone some very radical surgery followed by radiotherapy for head and neck cancer. She knew that she needed to be creative to be able to cope more efficiently with the situation, but found it too difficult to take on the rigours of figurative work. All art begins with making marks, which become lines, which can evolve into form. She began to do this onto some pieces of scrap glass that still had unfired paint on them. These marks became patterns and the embellished glass sections that resulted became part of a design for stained glass. She produced many of these which could be reshaped and manipulated to illustrate part of a theme. They became almost a kind of signature for many of her designs
They have since evolved because of Annie’s relationship with the landscape, and furthermore her background in printmaking that she studied at college, seems to be influencing a return to experimentation with simple printing techniques which are also beginning to feature more in her work. As Annie moves forward ,she has been looking more at texture, particularly plant life and how this could define a relationship with the glass to further compliment the colours and the images contained within each design. The juxtaposition between the glass and wood is interesting, particular in its more natural state. She feels it encourages a perspective of bringing together the natural world from the outside into the domestic environment of the home.