Retirement meant anything but rest for former broadcaster Anna Grayson. Instead she decided to go to art school – her projects recreating classic masterpieces in photography has turned her into a successful artist, with work chosen for show by Turner Prize-winner Grayson Perry and a solo show in Exeter this year.
A geologist by training, Anna spent her working life as a writer and broadcaster – and was a regular voice on Radios 4 and 5 and was the first woman to present A Natural World on BBC2. She took early retirement in 2012 and followed her dream to art school. “I expected to learn new skills to fill my hours of retirement, but instead it turned into a whole new career, and a career I really love,” she says.
While her work reflects classic masterpieces, her location has constantly proved to be an inspiration. “I don’t think I could have shot half of these pictures if I did not live in Devon. The South Devon coast has provided locations for some quite unexpected pieces. Perhaps the most surprising of these was my version of the Mona Lisa, using the Teign Estuary in the Autumn to replicate the warm tones of Tuscany for the background. The female model I’d lined up dropped out because she felt it was too cold and so my husband took over. This turned out to be a bit of a career moment.”
Anna’s Moaning Geezer was one of two photo-pastiches to be chosen by Grayson Perry to be hung in his famous Yellow Gallery at the 250th anniversary Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. “It marked my passage from successful amateur granny to proper professional artist,” she says.
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Denne historien er fra Summer 2020-utgaven av Devon Life.
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Legends Of Lockdown
A new online exhibition features an array of Devon’s lockdown legends exploring their lives and communities during the pandemic restrictions
Look Out For Intelligent Slime!
Think you know your waxcaps from your dog vomit slime mould? Exmoor’s conservation team needs our help to record the pretty and the not-so-pretty wildlife living in this unique national park. finds out more
Retirement redefined
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Look to the future
SU CARROLL talks to Sir Antony Gormley about his contribution to Devon’s artistic life
Natural beauty
Working with nature and the cycle of seasons, a new flower farm is blossoming in a fold of the beautiful River Teign valley
THE DIARY
SU CARROLL recommends the best events across the county this month
My kinda city...
With the perfect balance of country and city life, Exeter still shines as the jewel of the West. STEPHANIE DARKES shares her insider insights into the city that stole her heart
Letting themselves in for hard work...
Renovating your entire house is tough. Renovating someone else’s seven-bedroom Grade-II listed Georgian farmhouse and turning it into a high-end holiday let is even trickier. CHRISSY HARRIS went to Kingston see how it’s done
Lessons from history
History author Ian Mortimer has taken readers on travels through time from the Middle Ages to the Industrial Revolution. STU LAMBERT asks him how our country and our county changed in Regency times
A Reform character
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