Anna Mason first gained prominence as a young artist after winning a competition at the age of 18 for a design for a children’s tea set. Since then, she has displayed regularly at the Chelsea Flower Show, exhibiting at both local and national venues, whilst also exhibiting at numerous art fairs around the UK. She has continued to grow in reputation, having been invited to represent the UK at the prestigious Venice Biennale, where she received a prize for her ‘iconic’ water painting entitled Watercolour. Later that year she was shortlisted for the Turner Prize, which she narrowly missed out on by just a single point. After that she travelled to Paris, where she was again shortlisted, this time winning the coveted award.
Nowadays, Anna Mason is well known for her watercolour style of painting, incorporating striking landscapes and natural scenes with muted, earthy tones. Her art often pays close attention to the texture of the colours used, creating an inviting environment through the use of textures such as crushed terracotta and seashells, as well as recognisably British subjects such as the English country side or the British countryside. She believes that all art should be personalised, and that people should be encouraged to take responsibility for their own paintings, using their own imagination and style. “I make paintings that are about me,” she says. “I don’t think you can be a good artist if you don’t feel like making your work personalised.”
Anna Mason first began studying art in the late 1980s, after taking up painting as a freelance studio job. “I was looking for something that would define my style,” she says. “After I did a course at Brighton College of Art, I realised how important it was to have my own personal style and approach to painting.” “I would say I am an artist who has an eclectic attitude towards life, about colour, about feeling and about everything else.” Anna Mason’s watercolour style of painting draws on a natural sensibility and an appreciation of simple beauty, in much the same way that Matisse did. “Watercolours allow you to see things in a new way,” she says.