Annie Sloan

We all know the name on the tin is Annie Sloan but we thought you might like to find out a little bit more about the face behind the name.

This week, we'll look at how Annie Sloan's background led her to where she is today.

Annie was born in Australia, to a Scottish father and a Fijian mother.  She came to England when she was ten years old but with spells in Southern Africa and connections to France, Cuba and the US, feels rather justifiably cosmopolitan.

After, a brief career with an all-girl rock band (yes, it's true!), Annie studied Fine Art at Reading University, before starting to accept commissions to paint murals in the mid-70s. This developed into Annie running her now-famous paint courses: teaching about paint finishes, gilding, decoupage, and furniture restoration.

 

Annie also worked, for a time, designing furniture and fabric for a children's shop in London but began to want to switch focus slightly, to find a better way to combine the work she loved with being at home with her family.

 

After moving to the Oxfordshire countryside, she began to write, alongside running paint courses, having a strong desire to communicate and empower people creatively, which is conveyed through all she does

Annie had her first book published, The Complete Book of Decorative Paint Techniques, in 1988. There was a huge gap in a market that was hungry for well-researched, instructive yet accessible books and sales have reached 300, 000. Since then she has written over 20 books, all stemming from her passion for paint, pigment and art history, selling well over 2 million copies.

And then came a turning point. Feeling more and more frustrated with the limitations of the decorative products available, Annie wanted to create a completely new way of working with paint. She headed to the lab.

We'll be looking in more detail at what she developed and why next week......

 Images via Penny Millar and Christopher Drake