Anne McLeod grew up in the English Lake District but has lived mostly in rural Ireland, first in Co Limerick, and since 1991 in Co Wexford.  Self-taught as an artist, she found her own way with watercolours, discovering for herself its many techniques and thereby creating an individual style and approach. She has been led in this by a love of the Irish countryside, with its hills and lanes, beaches and streams, its flowers, trees and farm animals, and by the effect of light and shade on these subjects.

Equally, the use of watercolour on paper has captivated her, it being so simple and natural and yet so demanding a medium, aiming to achieve its results with a minimum of perfectly judged washes, as paint is laid down in layers from the lightest to the darkest.  It is this ‘working backwards’ approach that compels the artist to focus on the negative shapes in the composition, a procedure which she particularly relishes.

Anne was elected to the Watercolour Society of Ireland in 2000, receiving their Dart Award and O’Sullivan Graphics Award at subsequent exhibitions.  She has exhibited extensively nationwide and her work is in several corporate and public collections. She teaches regular watercolour classes in Wexford and occasional workshops both at home and in Schoolhouse for Art, Enniskerry, and Block T, Dublin. She receives both private and corporate commissions.