Anna Ilsley is based in Suffolk and graduated from Royal Drawing School in 2010 and University of Brighton’s BA in Fine Art Painting in 2006. 

Anna is inspired by mythologies and cultural references from across eras and cultures, be that a saucy detail from a Medieval manuscript; mythical representations of feminine power, the erotic frescoes of ancient Pompeii or the latest series of Love Island.

Her paintings and drawings address the physical and emotional impact of motherhood and her intensely strong urge to kick back against the cultural and political forces that shape women’s relationships with their own bodies. Her work often draws on the mess, joy and viscerality of her own experiences. Using the physical constraints of the canvas itself as a structure that both restricts and supports the figures it contains, the characters she depicts are in turn resplendently fleshy, embracing, smothering, saucy, monstrous.