Angela French grew up by the coast, her early love of art, the written word, and the wonders of the natural world culminating in a fine art degree with an illustration pathway.
Working predominantly in black and white on watercolour paper, her artworks are detailed portrayals that reach beyond the more usual 'cut to white' approach, being suffused with a sense of drama and mood that sets her work apart and is often suggestive of both narrative and character.
Although referenced as 'drawings', her approach to her art is more akin to that of the sculptor chipping away to reveal the form within, sculpting with graphite on paper rather than stone, working with negative as much as positive space. Her work is painstaking and labour intensive, layer upon layer of fine graphite, much as others build up oil or watercolour washes, thus achieving an increased sense of depth and tone. French has more recently begun exploring the ancient technique of silverpoint, whereby silver wire is drawn across a prepared gesso surface, a technique used by scribes, craftsmen and artists for centuries. Inspiration for her work comes from the form of a living creature combined with tonal contrast, creating a sense of drama and suspense through the interplay of light and dark. She would say she interprets tone and atmosphere via subject and is inspired most by etchings and old black and white photography.
Angela French has exhibited with the Society of Feline Artist and Society of Women Artists in London and has been the BBC Wildlife Artist of the Year Black and White category winner. She has exhibited with The Wykeham Gallery in Hampshire, The Jerram Gallery and Sculpture by the Lakes in Dorset, Aubrey-Fletcher Fine Art in Wiltshire, and The Albany Gallery in Cardiff, as well as at curated exhibitions near her home in Wales. She creates and writes from a small studio in rural Ceredigion where she lives with her husband, also an artist.