Anna Turner was born in Hertfordshire and moved to Leeds in the early nineties. She studied for her BA in Fine Art at Leeds Arts University graduating in 2013. This degree was a part-time course that took 6 years to complete. She started her master’s degree as an online student through Falmouth University at the start of 2022 and will graduate in December 2023.
Anna’s work is minimal in form giving the materials a primary role. Abrupt transitions are found between colour areas, creating visual contrast between each other and the bare wood. She aims to create balance without symmetry using the various weights and intensity of colour to create hard-edged paintings that are rooted in pure form.
Gnomon – Twistleton Scar is part of series of photographic images Anna began during the pandemic; taking a geometrically painted pole into various natural environments that, for a while, had temporarily been denied to the population whilst we were urged to ‘stay local’. By inserting a temporary disruption into these spaces, she is marking the artist’s unseen presence within these remote places. Representing a freedom to explore, an untethering from community, seeking solitude. A meditative act of walking, thinking and looking. The pin or pillar at the centre of a sundial is called a gnomon, from the Ancient Greek ‘one that knows or examines’. It is the part of a sundial that casts a shadow. So, the pole marks a place in time and not just geography.
The edges of the painting have an active role and can’t be viewed as a whole from a single angle. The piece revealing itself gradually as a viewer moves around it. Hard-edge painting is known for its economy of form, fullness of colour and smooth surface planes. The found wood adds extra contrast to the work with weathered textures, knots and natural grain. These abstract works are not reductions, but pure abstraction created slowly layer by layer.
