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Anne Cotterill 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 in any painting. Her detailed understanding of botany is
combined with a focus on light and texture that gives her work great presence and
feeling of movement. She works entirely in oils and paints mainly on board, with
background colours kept deliberately plain to accentuate the flower colour.
Anne Cotterill has had many successful exhibitions of her work, including solo
exhibitions at Thompson`s Gallery, London, in November 1998 and October 2001,
and regular collections at the Wykeham Gallery, Stockbridge, the Napier Gallery
(Jersey), Thompson`s Gallery, Aldeburgh, the City Gallery, London, and the
Bellflower Gallery, Devon. Exhibitions of Anne`s paintings always attract queues of
enthusiastic collectors and demand for her originals far outstrips supply.Mores the
pity Anne died in August 2010