SPOTLIGHT: a quarterly online series

EASTWOOD FINE ART: In your studio, you keep a library of books and orthodox icons. Are there any enduring sources you look to within your practice – be they from art history, literature, music or religion – and how do they inform your work?  

JEREMY ANNEAR: This is a good question but not easy to answer. My studio has grown around me, it is a sanctuary, a safe place and a place of retreat. It has its own calm but energetic and distinct presence, that is often to my surprise and pleasure commented on by those who enter it. I think that generally any space where a person consistently creatively searches and produces any material object or artefact can express this metaphysical almost tangible energy.

I am by nature positive, reflective and focused. My work could be described as a form of geometry (in terms of reaching for the sacred, rather than logical or mathematic) and abstraction (in that it is not representational, topographical or narrative). And so to address the question, I surround myself in the studio with music and musical instruments, some that I just like to look at like a broken accordion and an ancient Middle Eastern lute, as well as literature of all sorts. I just like books, love objects from my whole life including, for instance, a very worn and broken brown velvet monkey from my childhood, quirky objects picked up along the way, and of course the materials of my trade including some that I have had since my days in art school in the ’60s. 

EASTWOOD FINE ART: Your work is closely informed by nature, and defined by a distinct use of line, form and luminous colour that is both bold and sparing. Are there specific makers or sources you look to for inspiration, such as gardens, artists, musicians or books? 

ROSIE HARBOTTLE: We live in a little wooden house on the edge of Dartmoor surrounded by trees with a small river that runs through the garden, and so very much live amongst nature. Inspiration is all around and I love being guided by the seasons in terms of the plants and flowers that I draw and paint. Music is also very important to my creative process, a piece of music or song can often determine the direction of a painting, as I create from feeling as well as a vision. In the studio, you will mainly find me listening to folk music or Afrobeat. I adore colour and particularly love the work of Milton Avery, Vanessa Bell, and Pierre Boncompain amongst others, and their work will often inspire an idea or colour combination that I haven't yet explored.