Ann Easthope

Above picture ‘Singing in the Rain’

Shropshire artist Ann Easthope finds
inspiration in flowers – from the wild to cultivated varieties. Even the humble
dandelion has become a subject for her vibrant, colourful style and earned her
an award at the Oswestry & Shropshire Open Art Exhibition in 2010.

Her sketch book and camera go with her
whenever she is out, even when taking her faithful old dog Sam for his daily
walks, “just in case I spot anything,” says Ann.

She finds it difficult to remember an
occasion when she has not been involved in art – from primary school in
Lincolnshire to gaining an honours degree at Gloucestershire College of Art,
from being head of art at the Priory Girls’ School in Shrewsbury to being an
art instructor for the Shropshire Youth Service and finally setting up the
creative therapy department at the Severn Hospice in Shrewsbury and 10 years
later starting a similar department at the hospice’s unit in Telford. When at
last she retired from her hospice work in 2008 she returned to her main passion
of painting and set up her studio at her home in Wellington.

Since then her work, which she describes as
modern impression based for the most part on a floral theme, has been in demand
and her style is instantly recognisable. She has undertaken several commissions
and her paintings now hang in several parts of the world, from the Norwegian
Arctic Circle to Australia and from Japan to Chicago.

One Art Fund critic on seeing her work at an
exhibition in Staffordshire described it as vibrant, colourful and stimulating
and her paintings have been displayed at exhibitions throughout the Border
Counties as well as Staffordshire and Worcestershire.