Anne Desmet Book Signing at RA

Jul 25, 2019

Anne Desmet RA who delivers Wood Engraving Masterclasses here in the studio at Curwen has a book signing at the RA on 25 July 4 - 5.30pm. It takes place in Gallery X, Burlington House, Royal Academy of Arts and all are invited to attend. This is located on the first floor landing of the RA (Burlington House) immediately behind the RA Shop; access to Gallery X is directly through the shop. The event is free and un-ticketed and doesn’t require any booking/RSVP.

Anne has given some background below to her new book:

"In 1984 and 1985, when I was an art student, my Uncle Francis invited me and my brothers to join him for the summer holidays on his motorboat on Alonissos, one of Greece’s Northern Sporades. These were my first Aegean experiences and I filled sketchbooks with landscapes drawn often at speed from the moving boat and painted a short while later at mooring places or on land at some taverna. Since then, life in London and drawing in Italy diverted me from Greece until 2018 when I went back, now with my husband and our two children - both nearly the age I was when I first beheld those shores - and I filled another sketchbook with watercolour drawings.

I’m delighted to tell you that the Royal Academy of Arts has published a new book of my sketches. A follow-up to ‘Anne Desmet - An Italian Journey’ (published 2016), this latest book is titled: ‘Anne Desmet - A Greek Journey’ and brings together drawings from three Greek summers spanning 34 years. Its first drawings were made when I was still at art school in 1984-5 - my very first painted landscapes. Its most recent drawings - the major body of work included - were made last summer in Greece’s Northern Sporades. As with my ‘Italian Journey’ book, the RA has again done a beautiful job of collating and publishing this new facsimile sketchbook and, being Greece, it features plenty of blue skies, whitewashed buildings and hillsides dotted with olive trees!"

In addition The Summer Exhibition is still available to see.