Jeremy Annear is a British Abstract Artist, born in Exeter in 1949 . His family holidays were spent in Cornwall where he met and was influenced by artists and the vibrant and influential modernist arts community of the West Penwith in the 1950/60's. From an early age he determined to be an artist. In the mid sixties he went to Exeter College of Art and it was at this time that he exhibited his first abstract paintings. In the mid 1980's his work began to flourish, early signs of an assured 'language' of painting began to form. This coincided with moving to Cornwall to paint full time.
Since these early days Annear has exhibited widely and regularly in solo and mixed shows in the UK and abroad. During this time and for a decade or so, Annear was fully engaged in the cooperative community life of artists. He was an active committee member of the historic Newlyn and Penwith Society of Artists (1989-93) and sat on the Management Committee of the Newlyn Orion Gallery.
He formed the 'Cobalt Group' (1994) with other contemporary artists; Ralph Freeman, Roy Walker, Carole McDowel, Russ Hedges where they occasionally invited other artists to work cooperatively and experimentally. Annear was also a member of 'Group10' (1999) which was started by the legendary Bob Devereux of the Salt House Gallery St Ives.
Annear is quoted"- "
I am deeply embedded in European cultural influences, and as a teenager, had my eyes and heart open to European Modernism in art, music and literature. Spending my teenage years in the 60's, the language of non figurative and abstract painting fell easily into my young and fertile consciousness and has been, an all-engaging life pursuit.
I am profoundly grateful that I found a voice, to express my aspiration, to become and to be, an artist at an early age. Thomas Merton commented that, "A man knows when he has found his vocation when he stops thinking about how to live and begins to live." I began to live Painting and Making as a young teenager and knew then that this was my calling It has held me, obsessive, fascinated and engaged, throughout my life."