Artist Profile
Hannah Woodman was born in 1968 in Totnes, Devon. She studied at Exeter College of Art and Design and the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, before training to teach at the London Institute of Education, where she later gained an MA in Museums and Galleries in Education. Having taught and lectured in schools, museums and galleries for six years she turned to painting full time. Since then she has had a series of sell-out solo shows and her work is now held in private and public collections, both at home and abroad. Hannah has featured across a range of media including the Sunday Telegraph, Country Life, Cornwall Life, Country Homes & Interiors and BBC2’s Rick Stein’s Cornwall series. She has also exhibited alongside prestigious names such as Rose Hilton, Jean Cooke and Howard Hodgkin. Working across Cornwall and Devon, Hannah’s studio is now based near Devon’s South coast.
SEE PAST EXHIBITIONS
What Inspires Me?
" There is something monumentally special about being out in a landscape alone. When I cannot see another single soul and my surroundings stretch far beyond until they drop into the sea, suddenly comprehending my sense of scale in the world becomes exhilarating.
Cornwall is a rich corner for these experiences. For many years I had a studio at Gwithian and I forged a connection with this place that still sees me returning to paint an inexhaustible supply of inspiration. From the black rocks of Godrevy to the vast echoing expanse of the towans I’ve pulled moments onto canvas that are captured in my memory and I’m desperate not to lose. The low silver light of late February tinged with a pinkish tone that promises spring, the navy skies of sweeping storms, the wind whipped waves of a blustery summer’s day, the voices of my family rising over the sea – all combine to make a library of images and experiences I’ll never have enough time in my life to paint.
Behind the cliffs at Godrevy are the rolling fields of neighbouring farms that raise you above the vista of the sea into the quiet corners of hedgerows, paths and cottages – gateways into other hidden lives, undisturbed but watching from the horizon.
Walking the paper-thin edge of isolation out here over the years I’ve inadvertently set myself a lifelong challenge; how do you gather an infinite landscape into the confines of a canvas? The answer can only be to keep painting and surely there’s no better inspiration than that ".
— HANNAH WOODMAN