Winner of The Artist magazine award in 2024’s SWA annual exhibition, Anne McCormack’s background in graphics and draughtsmanship stands out. Creating a narrative and capturing a mood has always been her top priority, as well as the desire to pass onto the viewer the image that caught her imagination in the first place. Anne’s considered use of colour and light to describe shape, set the time of day or highlight particular sections or objects in a painting are paramount in creating that all-consuming ambiance. 

Having held roles as council member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour (RI) and past vice president of the Society of Women Artists (SWA), Anne has a great insight into exhibition organisation and the background work that goes into running a society. After many years of appearing in national art society open exhibitions and selling work through private independent galleries and regional art shows, Anne’s first significant breakthrough was to be elected a full member of the SWA in 1994, followed in 2007 with election to the RI which has brought many opportunities and recognition. 
‘Working alone can often result in periods of self-doubt. Being accepted by a high profile society gives a welcome boost to morale. Most important of all is the companionship of a group of like-minded people. Working as an artist can be a lonely occupation, so being able to encourage or commiserate with one another and to exchange advice and contacts is a great help. Societies also offer opportunities to participate in group or solo shows in private galleries throughout the country.’

Credit: Retail Refresh

Anne’s style changes considerably from time to time. She finds it impossible not to be subliminally influenced by other artists’ work. ‘With a great deal of time experimenting on subjects and techniques, a personal style automatically evolves. I must say I am pleased that other people recognise my work before spotting the signature.

‘If I could create a list of artists that have influenced me it would include: Arthur Melville, for his incredible use of watercolour. He is ambiguous as well as fully descriptive in his compositions and his skilful colour schemes have depth and brilliance; John Singer Sargent, for his masterly compositions, wonderfully flamboyant brushmarks in oil paint and his superb use of strong watercolours; Manolo Valdés for the textures and materials used to create his figurative abstracts. Both his two dimensional work and sculpture are fantastic. The abstract compositions of Antoni Tàpies are sublime, perfectly balanced in terms of colour, shape and mark making. I admire Saul Leiter for his talent in observing everyday life and his creation of stunning photographic compositions derived from the ordinary.’ Anne also admires the ability of photographers to recognise a subject instantly, that most people would walk straight past.

Credit: Piano Bar

Objects or buildings from the past have often gained character over the years, making them more appealing to Anne, rather than something static and brand new. Nostalgic subjects have a particular atmosphere or specific story. The inspiration for Anne’s interiors rarely comes from her own home. She constructs a composition from multi-reference points within her studio. Using artistic license, paintings are often made from a collection of differing images. Creating the mood follows time spent analysing what first attracted her to the subject. This, then invariably forms the focal point, which often includes that ‘pop’ of colour. 

Some interiors may follow a theme such as Anne’s sink collection. Fascinated by old studio sinks, found in the prestigious buildings of St Martins and The Slade, she became intrigued by those who may have used these sinks over many years. ‘The colours ingrained in the surface, and the stories of creativity they could tell provided great interest. It is definitely not staged. Finding a natural arrangement, some subjects just speak to you. It could be a collection of objects that have caught my eye and hopefully will therefore provide interest to others, too.’ 

Credit: Retro Mood

Anne generally works in watercolour or acrylic. It is a purely instinctive choice. Sometimes she wants to push a piece of work to its limits by experimentation, in which case she favours acrylic. This, she finds is more forgiving and slightly more predictable. Diluting the acrylics with either water or matt medium, Anne plots a composition with a watercolour consistency, then gradually works up to a thicker application of paint. ‘The additions of various mediums provide different effects; matt medium thins the pigment and does not dry as dull or flat compared to diluting the paint with water. Slow drying medium is useful if working in warmer temperatures, as acrylic paint tends to dry out very quickly. Transparent acrylic paints can look very similar to watercolour if they are used sparingly. My favourite medium is probably watercolour for its immediacy and possible effects. When the magic of pure watercolour is present, there is no medium more satisfying.’ 

Generally, Anne favours a square format and chooses to mount most work under glass to protect the fragile paper surface. For both watercolour and acrylic she uses heavyweight hot press paper and sometimes archival mountboard when working in acrylics. Whether using watercolour paper or board, she first applies gesso to the surface when using acrylics. This prevents the paint sinking into the surface and allows for experimentation by scratching or wiping out the surface. 

Using a variety of brushes including sable, synthetic and bristle, Anne pays careful attention to brushmarks. They tend to be free and vary with intensity according to the subject and the size of the painting. Sections of a painting may be erased with a tissue. Palette knives are used for textured sgraffito effects. Graphite/water-soluble crayons provide additional marks. ‘I use Caran D’Ache Neocolour II pastels and Derwent Inktense watercolour pencils. Erasers play an important part to create a softening effect, especially when graphite or charcoal has been used. I draw with the eraser, just as much as with pencils.’

Starting with a separate preparatory drawing, whether from a quick sketch, memory, photograph or just imagination, Anne gains understanding of the subject in order to formulate the composition. ‘For me, colour is everything. Producing a very quick small painting gives me an understanding of colour balance, whilst also giving consideration to the ambiance I wish to create. Taking a small mount over the drawing enables me to focus on areas that are important and also to consider what to eliminate.’ 

Credit: Eds Kitchen

Anne veers towards abstraction on occasions but in reality most paintings start as abstracts and then the factual detail takes over. ‘By indicating an image without constantly using hard lines a certain amount of ambiguity can be achieved. For the finished piece, I may draw a few guidelines of the composition; this allows me to get straight into paint. Some under layers may be left undisturbed, but usually it’s instinctive as it is important to understand which areas of the painting need to be more dominant.

‘Regarding tone, I think it’s an intuitive judgment. Stepping back and squinting at the painting tells if something isn’t reading tonally.’ Mixing a trial colour range beforehand helps Anne to focus on the ultimate combination to gain the most overall impact. She often changes the colour from reality to suit the mood, the time of day or season she wishes to portray or for the subject to have more visual impact. Ideas for colour come from many influences and of course the stunning array of colours produced by nature. To form colour schemes, she sometimes uses samples cut from packaging, magazines, fabrics or any material. ‘The difficult part is trying to re-create in paint the colours that captured your imagination in the first place.’ 

Credit: Warm Glow

By using a fairly limited palette, Anne gives a greater colour balance to the composition. For times when accentuated colour is needed, the vibrancy can be difficult to mix, in which case, she gets it straight from the tube. She finds Golden and Old Holborn acrylics are both heavy body and provide good pigment strength. Most of her watercolour paints are Winsor & Newton. She likes the colour consistency of their tube paints. Anne’s preferred transparent colours are: transparent yellow oxide, new gamboge, burnt orange, quinacridone red, ultramarine blue, phthalo blue and indanthrone blue. 

Anne has several paintings on the go at once. Taking a break from a painting gives her an opportunity to re-assess the progress. Moving to another piece of work of a similar subject can often identify answers to any uncertainties within the unfinished work. ‘Speed isn’t the issue for achieving the feeling of spontaneity. Trying not to overwork the brushstrokes is always a key consideration. The trick is, knowing when to stop!’