Amanda Ansell

Devotion II, 2009, 45 x 60cm

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Amanda Ansell was born in Sudbury in 1976. After studying for a BA (Hons) in Fine Art, Painting at Norwich School of Art and Design, 1995 – 1998, she was awarded an Arts and Humanities Research Board bursary to study at the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, London and was awarded a MFA with distinction, in 2000.

On leaving art school, she first exhibited with the Vertigo gallery, in London’s east end. In 2001, two paintings were selected by Sir Peter Blake for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and she was short listed for the Dupree Award for a Woman Artist. Her work is featured in the Gissings Collection, London, as well a in numerous private collections.

After studying and painting in London for seven years, Amanda Ansell returned to Suffolk in 2006 to take up an artist residency at Firstsite, Colchester. The same year, a body of work was selected for exhibition at Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge and she was short listed for Jerwood Contemporary Painters, London. One of Amanda’s paintings was selected for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition last year and sold to a private British collector.

Over the last few years, she has rediscovered her love for the Suffolk landscape and in particular the river Stour walks, close to Sudbury. Her painting practice has continued to explore stillness and contemplation; the floating subject and the relationship between painter and nature. Among Amanda’s influences are oriental art and Chinese landscape painting, where can also be found the delicate layering of paint to create a shimmering effect, as in Amanda’s work.