The Artist: An Introduction
Zanna works half en plein air but not in the traditional sense, not literally and not topographically. Often her work is done directly from sitting in the middle of a field with her rucksack of tools roughly strewn around her, more recently she can be found painting from a canoe, on Loch Tay or Loch Faskally, sometimes accompanied by other artists, from her Paddling Painters initiative. Zanna also works from her studio, whether it be her very first studio in Edinburgh in Leith or her 2 month residency at Wasps Studio at Perth Creative Exchange or her Aberfeldy home studio.
She has had some sell-out shows but between 2012 & 2019 her work took a hit as she had 7 years of being a primary carer for her mother, 6 of which were spent living next door to her nursing her through her various health dramas heavily involving addiction issues. Sadly this came to an end in late 2019 when her mother passed away in fairly brutal terms but in regards to the rebirth of her work there was suddenly an allowance for Zanna to return to her studio with an unstoppable urge to catch up on what she’d be missing. During those 7 years in a carer role, Zanna did manage her Travelling the Road solo show at The Watermill in 2015; Jayne Ramage speaking on behalf of the Gallery said Zanna’s ‘paintings take us on a journey which reveals at every turn the relationship between people and nature’. Jayne was referring to a body of work, mainly painted in water-based mediums, that dealt with the 23-mile journey between Aberfeldy and Crieff. For five years that landscape fascinated Zanna ‘So much happens along the road – black game lekking, shepherding, heather burning. I want to paint it all! I use water-based mediums so I can work quickly to capture things as they catch my eye’. Gradually oil paint crept back into her work as her daughters grew older and more painting time revealed itself. Commissions have been a staple throughout Zanna’s time as an artist.
Zanna was recognised early as an exceptional talent, winning a scholarship at school and two awards early in her full time career as an artist. Zanna has exhibited extensively but notably with Cyril Gerber Fine Art in Glasgow and the Royal Glasgow Institute. Zanna is exploratory in her interest with her art; she has run an art gallery, held painting workshops, experimented in her own practice and is now excited at the new prospect of being art curator/gallerist for The Watermill Gallery, starting in June 2021.
Between 2005 & 12, Zanna was sometimes in 12 exhibitions a year and for the period 2012 to 2019 whilst Zanna’s gallery work slowed down her private commissions took centre stage. Zanna also discovered her love of painting wildlife on ceramics ware in this period, very accessible but collectible bowls and large platters with hand painted images of Scottish wildlife handled in a very free painterly manner.
Defined as an intuitive expressive painter, Zanna has transformed the last 18 months into a fertile period of painting up to 100 new pieces. Zanna has been using seascapes as both the fabric and inspiration of her work. She is very settled in Aberfeldy and this sense of belonging is now deeply imbedded, she can see the seasons change and paint the whole calendar but it has been the sea that has been keeping her passion peaked and in the absence of travel, occupying her imagination. In all her paintings you might catch the wild flowers of Spring, the Autumn skies or the bleak drama of Winter. Her responses are raw, immediate and compelling. There’s always a hint of where she is thinking about despite there often not being a distinguishable topographical detail to each piece.
“There is something so exciting and vital about being in a landscape alone with paint brush in hand. Time feels like it slows down and as my heart rate slows, I slowly start my process of looking. The landscape expands and the task of recording my reactions begins. I’m fairly ritualistic about this process, in one sitting I force myself to complete something. It’s like taking notes. I’ve learnt to not be upset if the result is not instantly satisfying as it is the act of looking and mark making that spurs me on and reaps rewards later back in the studio. I’m on a life long mission to capture all that I find inspiring in the landscape.”
“Lockdown meant I had to stop looking for so many new beginnings and sources and concentrate on what material I already had. This static period meant I leant deep into prior resources, sketches, paintings and photographs and I found I had a wealth to work from and more than enough intuition to trust my instinctive more gestural handling of paint. It was a thrilling discovery which got richer and richer.”