African wanderlust of nonagenarian artist
Published: 04 June 2010
by PETER GRUNER
ONE of Islington’s best-loved artists, Anne Cloudsley, has a retrospective exhibition at Highgate Gallery from next week June 11.
Anne’s vibrant and sensitive paintings are said to evoke the heat, drama and beauty of life in Africa, Australia, Peru and elsewhere, where she and her husband have worked and travelled.
The exhibition gathers together key works – paintings, drawings, pastels and prints – from the prolific career of a working artist now in her mid-90s.
Although many of the pictures are set in exotic surroundings, they display recurring themes of universal significance. Her interest in painting was originally fired when she worked in Sudan as head physiotherapist at Omdurman General Hospital, while her husband was Professor of Zoology at the University of Khartoum.
She returned to England to study art at the City Literary Institute and later at the Byam Shaw School of Art in Holloway. In addition to her creative work, Anne has worked as a fine art lecturer, contributed to numerous publications about African society and the African environment, and is a published author in her own right.
She was the founder of the Africa Centre in Covent Garden and chairwoman of the Westminster City Council Visual Arts Committee from 1982-1985.
Anne has exhibited widely, both as an individual and as a member of the prestigious London Group.
• Anne Cloudsley: A Retrospective Exhibition, is at Highgate Gallery, 11 South Grove, N6, from June 11-24. 020 8340 3343
gallery@hlsi.net
www.hlsi.net
Admission free. Tues-Fri 1-5pm, Sat 11am-4pm, Sunday 11am-5pm, closed Mondays. Paintings are for sale