Born in the Netherlands, Anna Geerdes RSA (Elect) moved to Hoy, Orkney in 1991. She studied at Gray’s School of Art from 2006 before moving to Glasgow, where she lived and worked for ten years.
Typical of Anna's restless spirit and sense of adventure, she recently moved back to Hoy to live in an abandoned cottage, as yet without electricity or even a road. It is here that she has chosen to carve out a home for herself and her art, and it isn't difficult to see how the stark landscape is providing inspiration for her austerely beautiful paintings.
Although remote, this is far from being an untouched wilderness devoid of human life. Anna’s outlook takes in the sea and prolific bird life, but also the traffic of oil tankers to and from a neighbouring oil termina, and the ruins of the British Fleet’s settlement there during World War 2. She notes that ‘ruins of a time of war, and what has been can come again…’. This location is fitting for her existing preoccupation with ancient landscapes shaped by human civilisation.
Since graduating from Gray’s School of Art, Anna has exhibited in several solo exhibitions. She regularly showcases work at the RSA Annual Exhibition and was the 2011 recipient of the RSA Landscape and the 2021 recipient of the W Gordon Smith Award. She has been awarded a number of other prizes, including the Bet Low Trust Award, the David and June Gordon Memorial Trust Award and the RGU Heritage Purchase Award.
