Home from Church - Acrylic on Canvas

Born in Belfast, daughter of the legendary Markey Robinson, Annie was exposed to the art world from a young age and spent much of her childhood traveling the Irish countryside with her father. During these travels Annie fell in love with the simple rural life of the Irish countryside with its serene fishing villages and cottages so avidly captured in her father's art. These early childhood memories became the basis for much of her art in later life.

At the age of twelve Annie emigrated to America with her mother and sister. Annie went on to study at the University of Washington in Seattle where she took part-time art classes at the Cornish Art School. She later travelled extensively throughout the United States, the Pacific Islands and to Australia and New Zealand. Annie eventually settled in Hawaii where she remained for seven years, painting scenes of rural Polynesian life.

Annie has said, "In a strange way my father and I were drawn to life and art in similar ways. I think the joy and romance of a moment of life was the same for both of us and that is what we try to communicate as artists."

For her landscapes Annie works solely from her imagination, drawing upon her childhood experience of traveling around the Irish countryside with Markey, for inspiration. As well as her father, Annie names Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin as influences and Dan O'Neill and Nora McGuiness as her favourite Irish Artists.

Her works contain the same flat plains of un-modulated colour which is so characteristic of her father's work, but in Annie's work the sombre, muted earth tones used by Markey are replaced with a more vivid and vibrant palette.

Although both Markey and Annie share a nostalgic and idealistic view of rural Ireland, Markey's landscapes have a sense of sadness and regret and a disconnection from the modern world whereas Annie's works are a joyous celebration of rural Irish life, inviting the viewer to partake in that joy. This celebration of a simpler life is something that Annie finds very important in the current economic climate. As a way to combat the recession, she recommends trading in the busy stressful, urban life and in her own words; "getting a cottage with chickens and a goat and cutting some peat".