Antonia Phillips

Antonia is a well-known and established Dorset Artist. She trained in Natural History Illustration at Bournemouth College of Art & Design and Advanced Fine Art at Arts Institute Bournemouth. A member of the Society of Wildlife Artists (SWLA) since 2007, she exhibits annually at the Mall Galleries in London.

Acrylic paintings are often created outdoors, within the landscape itself, bringing an immediacy to her work.  Antonia is inspired by the sea with its changing light, while also exploring her interest in woods and field shapes.

She has worked with Dorset Wildlife Trust for over 30 years, producing illustrations and nature panels for many of the Trust’s reserves.

‘I am fortunate to be surrounded by inspiring landscape, living where I do. I also love to travel and experience landscapes further afield, on Adventure, where I paint directly, absorbing each atmosphere & often energised by the weather! I also enjoy sketching from a boat, seeing the coast from a different angle it is quite easy to lose one’s idea of known coastal shapes, all part of the experience..’

Antonia paints in acrylic, often on canvas, or on heavily primed Fabriano watercolour paper, easily portable whilst on a journey..
Work not completed in situ will be finalised back in the studio, where monoprinting also takes place.

In preparing for Exhibition, she will work up several paintings at once, though her dog portraits will be completed individually.

Awards:

• SWLA / Dorset Wildlife Trust – Underwater Art Award
• SWLA / Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust – Wetlands for Life Bursary Award
• Dorset County Hospital / Arts in Hospital award – ‘Dreams of Australia’

Publications:

• Public Catalogue Collection for Dorset
• The Natural Eye, Art Book One – SWLA

Residencies:

• Ny Ǻlesund, Spitsbergen – with NERC Scientists on barnacle goose migration
• Baltic Cruise – Art workshops aboard ship
• Charles Darwin Research Station, Galapagos Islands

‘I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying’