Ann Oram

Ann Oram 1956 –

Ann Oram was born in London in May 1956. Her family was well known in the hotel and licensed trade in the Highlands. She was raised in Grantown-on-Spey where she was mainly educated. Her final two years of school were however at Inverness Royal Academy after which she went to Edinburgh College of Art from1976 to 1982.

Whilst at the Edinburgh College of Art, Oram won the Carnegie Travelling Scholarship at the Royal Scottish Academy’s Student Show in 1980, the Andrew Grant Travelling Scholarship to New York and the Edinburgh College of Art’s Largo Award both in 1981 and then the Andrew Grant Major Award, all of which enabled her to travel in France and Italy in 1981 and 1982.

After graduation, from 1983 until 1985, Oram taught part-time at Edinburgh College of Art whilst developing her career as a professional artist. Her progress was rewarded with her election to membership of the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour in 1986.

She tutored privately in the following two years before moving to live and paint in Spain in 1987 and 1988.

Ann returned from the continent in 1987 and that year was invited to visit the Art Department and lecture at the then Newcastle Polytechnic. She also revived her private tuition and in 1990 notably conducted painting courses on Mull and in Spain. Her next step was to retrace her artistic roots in Edinburgh College of Art as a part-time lecturer in 1991 where she remained in post until 1996.

By 1997 her paintings were increasingly sought by collectors and to be found in public collections and in corporate settings. The demands of one person shows and annual exhibitions now consumed her time. She had an uninterrupted series of the former from 1995 to 2008 and between from 1996 to 2010 she exhibited annually with Duncan R Miller Fine Arts including the London Art Fair, the 20/21st International Art Fair and the Affordable Art Fair.

Another move to Europe in 2006, this time to Vienna, saw Oram spend over a year painting in Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Italy, Switzerland and Croatia. Her work was shown in the Lemon Street Gallery in London in 2008 and the Richmond Hill Gallery both of which have a strong interest in Scottish painters.

A spell in Fife from 2008 was followed by time in France and then by a move to the Scottish Borders in 2016 where she has found new inspiration in the beauty of its countryside in changing seasons.