ANNE COTTERILL - Flower Art

Anne Cotterill ( 1933 - 2010) was born in the Borders of Scotland, educated in Edinburgh and graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in 1956 at the time when Sir William Gillies was head of painting. She was awarded a postgraduate scholarship to continue her work in Edinburgh followed by a travelling scholarship to Europe that enabled her to study the work and technique of the great traditional painters. Married life brought her to West Somerset in the early 1960s where the seasonal changes of the wildflowers in the surrounding countryside are a constant source of inspiration for her paintings . Anne considers herself to be a painter first and foremost, but one who paints mostly flowers. Her studies have a fresh vitality and strong sense of colour imbuing each one with a gem-like quality. The flowers are arranged informally in one of Anne`s large collection of vases, pots, jugs and simple jam jars and she paints with the natural light falling from one direction to give tonal values so important