“I’m drawn to painting interiors and the gentle everyday life and rhythm of the home. Still life with seasonal flowers and treasured everyday objects, glimpsed at a particular moment in time. Although the figure is usually absent, there is a sense of someone having been there.”
Anna Dixon-Smith studied at St. Martins school of art, later attending the Ipswich School of Art and the Royal Drawing School. She currently lives in Suffolk, and works primarily in oil and collage.
Dixon-Smith’s paintings have two primary focuses: still life scenes, and life drawing. Influenced by her mother’s background in dance, her life drawings highlight the body’s capacity for dynamic movement. While her still life works are slightly more static, they are no less engaging. Her tablescapes possess the allayed motion of everyday life, capturing the moment just after someone risen out of their chair, and left the scene. What remains is a vibrant stillness, perhaps suggesting the prescence of an unknown figure standing just outside of frame.
A former florist, Dixon-Smith's appreciation for nature shines through her still lifes, many of which feature flowers. The artist places these blooms alongside quotidian objects taken from her own home, making each work an intimate portrait of her domestic surroundings. Her work gives the viewer a fleeting glimpse into her life, capturing the passing of time through the incorporation of various seasonal flora.