by Jeremy Annear

Jeremy Annear is an English painter who was introduced to St Ives modernism in his early formative years. He lives and works in Cornwall. Annear studied Fine Art Painting and Printmaking at Exeter College of Art in the late sixties. Annear works mostly with oil on board and canvas. The shapes, colours and forms are built up in relief-like layers, resulting to alluring textures, surfaces and edges. “I constantly play at laying paint into paint, wet into wet. I have always wanted to throw lots of paint onto my supports. Part of the deepest satisfaction of painting for me has been to achieve exactly what I want with the paint”. Jeremy Annear was exposed as a young artist to St Ives group and was influenced by the work of Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth, Roger Hilton and Terry Frost. His paintings share affinities with European Modernists like Braque, Picasso and Miro. Jeremy’s abstracted paintings react to the natural geometry and transformations of his beloved Cornish landscape. He has also worked extensively in Germany and Australia and has absorbed influences in his work from both these cultures. Annear's work has been widely acclaimed and commented by numerous art critics, curators, art writers, artists and historians, such as Andrew Lambirth (The Spectator), Graham Boyd (Artist), Mercedes Smith (Writer and critic), Ian Collins (Art writer and curator), Nicholas Usherwodd (Art writer and publisher), Dr. Jane Hamilton (Art activist and Historian) or Rachel Barnes (Lecturer at the Tate and writer at the Guardian and The Independant). One of the most elogious (but not untrue) comment about Annear comes from Caroline Georgiadis, previously head of sales for British paintings at Christie's and currently running her own art consultancy practice: "Jeremy Annear (...) is a European Modernist painter in the vein of great artists such as Paul Klee, Wasilly Kansinsky, Joan Miro, Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque." Annear has mostly and regularly exhibited in the UK, but his work was also displayed in Germany, France and The Netherlands.