Above: ‘The Willow House’ detail. Oil on linen. 90 x 120cm

A welcome return to Twenty Twenty Gallery for Ann McCay with new paintings in a solo exhibition with ceramics by Elin Hughes and James Burnett-Stewart.

“When making something, memories, empirical observation and make-believe continually overlap and interact.”
Marina Warner from Forms of Enchantment

“These paintings grew out of my regular walks to a bank of willows upstream from where I live. Over many years these willows have become rooms of my own. They have grown to become the house that you see in these images.

A house without walls that has fallen timbers that renew themselves and grow again in different positions as branches fall off and take root in the riverbank. The house expands and changes shape slowly as the trees grow, and suddenly during floods and high winds.

The inhabitants of the Willow House are characters who have wandered in and out of my paintings for years. Sometimes they represent feelings or ideas and sometimes aspects of myself or other people. Here, they are a troupe brought together by their attachment to a world of enchantment outside the home or everyday life. They embody a love of place that sparks the imagination and feeds the soul.

The Willow House is a place of ideas, reverie and movement where people and memories have passed through and are still passing through, turning to the trees, to the riverbank, to an animal companion.”

Ann McCay 2022

‘The Picnickers’ – Oil on linen 90 x 120cm. Unframed

‘The Mantlepiece’ Oil on linen. 24 x 30cm

‘The Bridge’ Oil on linen. 24 x 30cm

‘The Captain’ – Oil on linen. 50 x 70cm

‘The Cave’ – Oil on linen. 50 x 50cm

‘Points of View’ – Oil on linen. 50 x 50cm

The complete exhibition of Ann’s paintings will be published online on Friday 17th June