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forest on the edge of our property through the seasons. Writing about it came easily, like writing about an old friend. Now in Devon, in our new place with unfamiliar surroundings, it felt somewhat daunting to begin with. So in the first year when we were meant to be unpacking boxes together, setting up our new home, getting to know the environment and making new friends, I became the AWOL wife who went off kayaking, swimming and walking along the coast, all in the name of research.” Anna continued: “The coast


is utterly beguiling and it’s in my blood. Even if it’s absolutely hammering it down with rain and the wind is blowing, I have to go out and be near the sea – on it, in it, beside it, it doesn’t matter. It’s a visceral pull. So with the ‘excuse’ to go out and learn about the area on fast forward….I felt very settled here by the time I finished writing the book.” Anna works mainly in pen, watercolour and oil but more


recently has reached back into the past to rediscover and learn an ancient medium called egg tempera. Used by Renaissance giants Botticelli and Michelangelo and on murals in ancient China, Mycenaean Greece and Egypt, tempera gives a lustre and luminosity that brings food illustration to life in all its technicolour glory. The tempera method combines equal measures of egg yolk and water with natural jewel-like pigments, such as the poetic- sounding crimson alizarin derived from the madder root and ultramarine blue made by grinding lapis lazuli from Afghanistan into a powder. Anna said: “The great thing about egg tempera is you can use a whole array of pigments in layer after semi-opaque layer to create an overall colour. It gives my work a quality of depth and gloss I couldn’t achieve with any other medium. “Portraying flora and fauna, and wildlife in general, is a good fit for


me as an illustrator and artist, but also as a human. All these themes are unified under the banner of ‘nature.’ “We can all relate to this thing called nature; it speaks to us on a very immediate level, and it has the ability to cut through all social constructs, politics even,” Anna believes. “Nature is our ally not only on a


very physical and immediate level, but it can also save our mental state too. We need to hold nature close, and be its champion.”


For more information visit annakoskaillustration.com, Instagram @gremkoska and Twitter @Gremkoska


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