Member Profiles

Ann is a painter, printmaker and an avid sketchbook/visual diary keeper. For two years (1999-2001) she worked as Artist in Residence at Chester Zoo, concentrating on the Aquarium, the Twilight Zone (bats) and the gardens. Residencies have continued to be an important part of her practice. At Plas Newydd in Llangollen, she produced a body of work (drawings and sketch book diary) in response to the history of ’The Ladies of Llangollen’ who ran away together from Ireland in the late eighteenth century to live in north Wales. Other residencies include being based in Wepre Park, Flintshire and a trip to South Africa documenting an Urban Saints trip to build dwellings in an orphanage.

With the support of a Lottery Project grant from the Arts Council of Wales in 2006 Ann was able to document the lifecycle of the silkworm through a series of drawings. The resulting exhibition has been on show in Chester Zoo, Macclesfield Silk Museum, the North Wales Gallery network and other venues.

Ann’s work is regularly exhibited nationally and internationally in group and solo shows. Paintings in Hospitals (Wales) hold a number of works in their loan collection.

Her association with the Arts Centre Group goes back to around 1979 when she was living in the Medway Towns. Trips up to the ACG happened fairly regularly over the next decade or so (until there was a family move to north Wales in connection with Lego).

"I remember meeting up for delicious meals there and being (a fairly quiet) part of a group called FLI (Felt, Lead, Ink?). I think I provided the chocolate brownies! It was good to find a number of like-minded artists, musicians and writers in Wales and Shropshire, some of whom were in the ACG at that time. For several years we met two or three times a year, with our families, mostly for fun get-togethers, to play, eat and spend time with each other. Circumstances changed, as they do, but I’m so pleased to be able to say that friendships from early ACG days have remained or been renewed in recent years."

Ann eventually fulfilled a long held desire to study art and work professionally as a painter and printmaker.

Website: www.ann-bridges.com

 

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