Anne Corless - Wildlife Artist
Born in the UK, as a young child I travelled overseas with my parents and was brought up in Nigeria, Australia and for eleven years in Kenya, where we enjoyed some wonderful experiences travelling to remote areas of this beautiful country. This where my love of wildlife comes from, as back in the 70’s the large herd of elephants could still be found…….
Having trained in the UK as a registered nurse and later as a midwife, I continued my travels on my own and worked in Saudi Arabia and then South Africa where I met my husband (a Lancastrian) and together we shared a love of travelling, photography and safaris! At the time, the regime of Apartheid was part of life in South Africa and when our first child was born in Johannesburg, we left the country….unwilling to bring up a family there. Later, when living back in the UK and having worked for a number of years as a midwife alongside being a busy mum of three, I decided to be brave and return to my studies and went back to life as a full time student. I continued to work as a midwife at weekends until I gained my B.A. (Hons) in Scientific and Natural History Illustration when I made the decision to ‘retire’ from my nursing career. I then went on to train as a medical artist with the Medical Artists Education Trust here in the UK.
About my work as an artist.….I have always created artwork. In the very early years I worked in charcoal as it was easy to carry around when travelling…and the images always looked dramatic! I now work in all media….but oil painting is my absolute favourite. I continually strive to improve my technique as an oil painter by studying the work of the Old Masters and researching painting techniques. I follow traditional tried and tested methods in my painting. My studies and work as a medical artist has honed my observational drawing skills and my knowledge of anatomy of both humans and animals enables me to produce artwork that I hope looks realistic, dynamic and has feeling. Every piece of work I produce has a narrative and I try to portray what I feel about the scene or animal I am painting. Although I can work very large I also enjoy creating small delicate pieces of artwork. My love of wildlife comes from my many experiences seeing animals in the wild. I use my own reference for all my work, often as a starting point of an idea; the hard work then starts as I try and portray what I am feeling. My love of horses is why I now enjoy creating artwork of them. I look for movement, expression…something interesting to turn the artwork into something dramatic or emotive.
With all my artwork, as I always say….if I look across the studio at a piece of work and get the feeling that it could come to life, then something is beginning to work……
A Tribute to Lancashire Constabulary Mounted Branch’
Oil painting on canvas - 150 cms x 100 cms without a frame.
It is a box canvas - This painting is NOT for sale - It is on loan to Lancashire Constabulary Headquarters at Hutton.
Cheetah on the run’, 40” x 28”, oil on canvas.
This painting is for sale at £2,3000.
About this painting: The reference for this painting is my own and comes from spending a day watching this female cheetah and her cubs in a Game Park in Kenya, all those years ago when I lived there with my parents.I have used Michael Harding oil paints for this painting. The colours are wonderful and I feel I can achieve atmosphere and realism due to the subtleties and yet strength this paint gives me.
Mercy, Feet First Worldwide Project Coordinator (Malawi)’
Oil on canvas - 27” x 27” without the frame.
This painting is NOT for sale
Wildlfie Art Paintings