My Story

Ann paints what she sees, in glorious detail of her subject matter’s colour, pattern and tone.

- Ann Morton

I live on a beautiful property just outside Cowra, NSW, and I travel into town, where I have my studio, six days per week. It has been very important to me over the years to have this separation of home and painting, especially when my children (now in their early 20s) were younger.

When I think about what I do as an artist it seems to me I spend my days painting irrelevant details, well, what others may consider irrelevant, but to me these subtle colour changes and details are what make a painting really work. Our eyes look for these details as they scan a painting, even if we are not aware of it. The hard part is the balancing act of using these details without letting them take over, and drowning out the overall impact of the painting.

It sounds a bit corny but I can truthfully say that I have been an artist all my life. My father was always my greatest fan and critic, and I would spend afternoons home after school and hours in the holidays drawing from life and photos, sometimes going in country show Art Competitions, but usually just for fun, and often choosing the hardest subject, just to see if I could do it.

In high school I had moved on to oils as well, and would spend weekends in a caravan in my backyard as my studio. I think my parents put me there to minimise the spread of the mess. I have never been a tidy painter; in fact my paintings are really the only point of order in my life.

I have no formal training. As I grew up the art world was very much focused away from the detailed realism that I loved. Even in the traditional world the focus seemed to be on more impressionist work. I was young I tried the broader style. I love the impact that the broad tonalist achieved, but I was not happy without my detail.