Ann Bridges - Printmaker
Ann Bridges (nee Matthews) was born in London 1960, moving away to spend most of her childhood near the Cinque Port town of Rye in East Sussex.
The daughter of Martin Matthews goldsmith (watch case maker) and niece of Jeffery Matthews MBE (Royal Mail postage stamp designer, specialising in commemorative royal events) she grew up with an appreciation of objects finely made or exquisitely drawn. Her first experience of Wales was on a family holiday in 1972 and in 1988 she moved there to bring up her young family in a small welsh village.
Her formal art training took place at the North Wales College of Art and Design graduating with first class honours in Design, specialising in illustration through the medium of printmaking. She has been the recipient of several Arts Council of Wales grants, most recently to document the life cycle of the silkworm through a series of drawings.
In 2000 she was invited to become a member of the Royal Cambrian Academy (the most senior arts institution in Wales) and became a Council member in 2007.
From 1999-2001 she held the position of Artist in Residence at Chester Zoo, where she continued to develop the technique she is most well known for; using oil based printmaking inks to create vibrantly coloured paintings.
Her first love is drawing, and the shelves of sketch books bear testament to this, mostly in diary format documenting family and working life as a full time artist.
Her paintings capture the essence of play, and taking the time to ‘stand and stare’, drawn from a combination of happy childhood memories of playing in the garden and on the beach, walking in the woods, feeding the fish in ponds and aquariums, reading stories (the Princess and the Pea) and sorting through the button box.
