About the work
Julie Annis’ practice is concerned with landscapes that feel other or what could be called ‘thin spaces’. Places where the veil between the physical and the spiritual, the mortal and the immortal is almost transparent and it’s this ‘otherness’ that her work conveys to the viewer.
Paintings are formed by referencing sketches made whilst walking and spending time in open countryside. In a landscape, Annis will look for the places that resonate with her sense of the mystical - a local wonder of natural history, a place of ancient memory or a site with personal meaning. These landscapes are recorded quickly ‘en plain air’ in a sketchbook and then initial images are further developed into paintings or works on paper and evolved into half imagined landscapes. Memories and feelings are used as extra reference points, whilst the process of painting eliminates the need for details and moves the work towards abstraction. Sometimes subtle symbolic motifs are added within the composition, as well as layers of colour and texture. This results in paintings that are dreamlike and otherworldly with a beguiling sense of mystery.
About Julie Annis
Julie Annis (b.1979) did her BTEC foundation in art and design at Brighton College of Technology and then went on to complete her BA in fine art, painting and drawing at Edinburgh College of Art in 2002. She now lives and works in East Sussex.
After exhibiting in Scotland directly after graduation, Annis went on to work as a graphic designer and illustrator as well as raise three children. She then reestablished her practice of making art during the summer of 2020, sketching en plein air in local countryside and painting from her studio in rural East Sussex just outside the town of Lewes.
In 2022 she was long listed for the Jackson painting prize, selected for the Oxmarket Contemporary Open 2022 and has most recently exhibited at Glyndebourne Opera House as part of their ‘Fair Ground’ exhibition.