Anne Smith

“When I was very young, I was taken to the 'Bowes' Museum in the north of England. They had a huge collection of etchings and I was immediately struck with the fine detail, that was what I wanted to do.”

Always interested in art and medieval history, tapestries and illuminated manuscripts. Anne spent most of her spare time visiting museums, stately homes and castles. Hadrian had built his wall round the corner from where she lived, although a little earlier, in the 1st century AD.

Anne finds the writing of 12th century authors like Chaucer illuminating. 'Canterbury Tales' and 16th century Cervantes 'Don Quixote' were inspiration for a series of hand coloured etchings using the same name.

The opera is now a major influence. Wonderfully graphic and visually stimulating, many of Anne's etchings and paintings are based on librettos from different operas. Using her own interpretation, Anne leaves the original story behind and develops the characters' lives in her own way. ('Love and the Opera. Based partly on characters from 'Madama Butterfly' and partly from 'Tales of Hoffman')

In 2000, Anne was invited to have a solo exhibition in Japan. An opportunity to see the Japanese artist Munakata's work and to add to her collection of Japanese silks.

With more recent painting trips to France, Vietnam and Burma, each country will inspire her to create the next series of paintings and etchings.