Anna Dudley Neill
Biography
Anna Dudley Neill was born just before the Second World War. She studied at Kingston Art School and Winchester School of Art before being awarded a County Major Scholarship to attend the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, in 1954. She studied under Claude Rogers, William Townsend, Lucien Freud and Henry Moore, with L. S. Lowry as a visiting tutor, and was awarded Slade Prizes for portraiture and composition. She graduated with a Diploma in Fine Art in 1957.
She later worked in a psychiatric hospital in Art Therapy and lived in Malta and Uganda, where she taught at a teachers’ training college and grammar schools. She subsequently lived in Mol, Belgium, where she was a founder member of the Kempenland Watercolour-painters and held annual exhibitions.
Artist Statement
My early experiences and extensive travels have influenced my approach to painting. I have always drawn and painted, and my studies included painting, modelling and sculpture, illustration, architectural drawing, life drawing and portraiture.
I became a watercolour painter while living and teaching in Uganda, after being unable to obtain the oil paints I had been using. I later developed a technique of using the brush like a pencil, making overlapping lines, or hachures, which added subtlety and depth to my landscapes.
My husband and I have travelled extensively in Europe and other continents, and I always return with sketches and working drawings. The deserts and National Parks of the American Midwest have been an inspiration for my abstract paintings. I also exhibit my work in watercolour and have developed my practice through painting and exhibiting in Europe.