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Drawing was very much a childhood companion for Anna, and her art practise gradually deepened. As a mature student, she was offered an unconditional place in the second year of a five-year Hons degree course. She graduated, gaining a BA Hons in Fine Art and Critical theory at Central St. Martins, London University of the Arts and with an artist’s book in the British library, her ongoing love of oil painting further established her practice.  

Previously offered a distinction in sculpture, assemblage and installation, in 2012  she was funded by the British Arts Council  to create a personal project and public​ installation “Flow”; three hundred silk flags flying horizontal from bamboo filled the negative space of a demolished olympic sized outside bathing pool. It was an invitation to the community to come together and take the air, with community picnic, meditative dance and Tai Chi. Over 2000 people viewed the installation and took part. It’s shadows rekindling  a continuing interest in calligraphic form and gestural line. This art work then travelled to the Conquest Hospital St. Leonard’s. Installed outside the Cardiac wards it again invited viewers to take a breath in the meditative space it provided. 

Inspired by the amazing location, drawing and painting  have become her focus here in the Highlands. Anna finds ways to articulate and animate a surface rather than be bound by representation.  This produces a freer, emotionally charged, use of paint. Sometimes with an obvious narrative, the artist’s intention becomes secondary. Walking a fine line, balancing  the figurative and abstract, abandonment and control inherent in the work. 

The work seems to both remind us of our place and at the same time bare witness to Anna’s natural reverence for its beauty. It could be a flitting colour sprung in a moment upon the hills, a dark crevice capturing one twig, the land speaks endless stories past and present and Anna Brice Cockland cannot help but listen.