Ann Ross RSW: ‘by leaves we live’
Ann Ross RSW lives in Edinburgh and regularly exhibits at the Open Eye Gallery. She is an elected member of the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour. Her studies at the Edinburgh College of Art culminated in a travelling scholarship in Europe - the start of a rich source and accumulation of memories. Her work has always been inspired by the world around her at home and abroad.
She enjoys working in watercolours and gouache - ‘It’s the perfect medium for building up layers of detail and rich colours allowing lots of pattern and movement. Paint and paper can become a journey into recalled light, colour and shape.’
Much of her time is spent working, watching and listening in various gardens and woodlands on travels near and far. Many of her paintings are visual memories of special moments in these beautiful spaces, wild or cultivated, and glimpses of wildlife or well beloved pets.
In ‘By leaves we live’, her most recent work, Ann Ross paints her many observations of the world around and its changing seasons. The constant focus in this work is the flora and fauna around.
‘How many people think twice about a leaf? Yet the leaf is the chief product and phenomenon of life: this is a green world with animals comparatively few and small, and all dependent on the leaves.’
Patrick Geddes, the Scottish pioneering biologist, sociologist and town planner
‘Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.' Albert Camus.
Awards:
The W. Gordon Smith & Mrs Jay Gordon Smith Award, RSW 2019
The RSA Maude Gemmell Hutchison Award 2017
The Scottish Arts Club Award, RSA 2017
The City of Glasgow College Award, The Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolours 2017
The Fotheringham Gallery Award, The Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolours 2015
The William Gillies Award, The Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolours
The Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolours Council Award
The Scottish Arts Club Award, The Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolours
David Muirhead Purchase Award, The Royal Scottish Academy
Scottish Arts Council Commission Award
Pernod Art Prize
As Ann Ross Paterson, her work in graphic design and illustration for various creative clients such as the Edinburgh Book Festival, the Edinburgh Film Festival and the Traverse Theatre and has been accepted into the collection of the National Library of Scotland.
Selected solo exhibitions:
2017 Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh
2012 Lemon Street Gallery, Truro, Cornwall
2011 Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh
2008 Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh
2006 Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh
2003 Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh
2001 Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh
1999 Cambridge Contemporary Art Gallery, Cambridge
1997 Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh
1983 Fair Maids Gallery, Perth
1970 New 57 Gallery, Edinburgh
Recent regular group exhibitions include:
Royal Scottish Academy
Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour
Royal Glasgow Institute
Roger Billcliffe Fine Art, Glasgow
Tolquhon Gallery, Aberdeenshire
Lemon Street Gallery, Truro
Wade Gallery, Elie, Fife