Printing became a new way of creating a mark, image or feeling, cutting into a surface. Taking away to add to the image, seeing it in various stages, opened up endless possibilities.

Technique can be helpful, also seductive. Fundamentally, the work is built on drawing, suggesting weight, space and being constantly aware of the container, the edges.

Ann Dowker is a painter, draughtsman and printmaker, born in Sheffield. She studied at Bath Academy of Art and the Central School of Art and Design, and has exhibited extensively since 1990, including with Theo Waddington, Angela Flowers and Art Space Gallery. She taught at Chelsea School of Art and Byam Shaw School of Art, and was one of the first senior tutors at the Royal Drawing School. She worked for many years with Leon Kossoff, printing his etchings and collaborating on his Poussin series.

Following her first visit to Egypt in the early 2000s, Dowker established a home and studio at Luxor and worked between London and Egypt. Her 2018 exhibition Paintings from Thebes at Art Space Gallery was accompanied by a catalogue with an essay by the distinguished art historian Juliet Wilson-Bareau. Her work is held in public and private collections including the Government Art Collection, Manchester City Art Gallery and New College, Cambridge.