User:Ann McLaren Hodgson

ANN McLAREN HODGSON, a professional artist, was born in Cottingham, East Yorkshire. Her love affair with music began at an early age having been encouraged by her Father to study both violin and piano. She gained a place at Chetham's School of Music, Manchester, and prior to this she played with the East Riding Youth Orchestra. After completing her education life took on a series of twists and turns which ultimately led to new experiences and ideas. With no formal training, she began painting flowers, still life and local landscapes. In 1991 she moved to Nottinghamshire, This was to become a turning point. Having already discovered the work of Kandinsky and Klimt she started experimenting with colour and form, and soon realised that by painting to music her work took on a more vibrant appearance with a sense of rhythm and movement. Eager to pursue this she began to listen to the same piece of music, on repeat, until the painting was finished. Her geometric style emerged and now each painting does represent a particular piece of music, an interpretation of how she 'feels and sees' the piece at the time. Often, a copious amount of gold ink is used to illuminate some of the more sombre and flatter colours, and to infuse an exotic intensity with varying degrees of texture.

She has had extremely successful solo 'Geometrics' exhibitions in Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire, and her work is also shown and sold at various other locations in the UK including the NEC Birmingham and Chester. Her work has been described as 'Stunning!', 'Too fantastic for words', 'Amazing, unique and uplifting', and 'Like looking at coloured gems'.

She has carried out many commissions using an eclectic mix of music, from Bach to Take That, Parry to Shostakovich, and a wide range of other composers in between. Commissions include two large scale paintings for the East Riding Schools' Music Service to celebrate the opening of The Hexagon Music Centre, Beverley, East Yorkshire, interpreting the music of John Adams and Sibelius.

Ann collaborated with pianist and composer Peter Dobson, London, in 2009 with much success, further collaborations are planned for 2013 with composers from the UK and abroad.

Her work is mainly to be found in private collections in the UK and abroad.

www.annmclarenhodgson.com