PRESS RELEASE

EDGELANDS: 8-20 June, Hop Gallery, Lewes

Edgelands features new work by Ann Johnson which dynamically explores the boundaries

between drawing and painting. Bold charcoal images demonstrate the power of black and white

mark-making which evolve into new, expressive forms through oil and acrylic.

She says: “I paint what is around me and what I’ve been up to: the south downs landscape,

gardens, animals, favourite pots… Through charcoal and paint I try to shift these subjects from

reality into more imagined presences. My pictures are essentially about marks, colour, gaps,

edges and punctuation with a few acceptable flaws and, hopefully, some surprises.”

Her work features at galleries and arts festivals, locally and nationally and her paintings have

been selected to hang at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. They have also appeared in

books and magazines including Resurgence and the RA Summer Exhibition Catalogue.

For several years, she has worked in a creative partnership with poet Fiona Owen. The

Edgelands exhibition coincides with the publication of Fiona’s new collection of poems Screen of

Brightness (Cinnamon Press) written in collaboration with Meredith Andrea. One of Ann

Johnson’s paintings features on the cover and signed copies will be available.

Ann will be taking a ‘walk and talk’ through the exhibition on Sunday 16 June at 2.30pm.

Hop Gallery, Star Brewery, Castle Ditch Lane (off Fisher Street) Lewes, East Sussex BN7 1YJ

Tues – Sat: 10.30am – 5pm. Sunday: 12noon – 5pm. (Closed Monday). Tel: 01273 487744

www.hopgallery.com

www.annjohnsonpaintings.net

Anemones, oil on canvas Gathering, charcoal on paper