Anastazie Anderson

My love of art began at the National Gallery in Prague, age 5, looking into the eyes of a Picasso self-portrait. It’s a truly great painting, going back there since it still strikes me. It’s the kind of painting that strikes a 5-year-old and a 26-year-old alike. Great art can do that, it oversteps all boundaries and allows us to feel things and understand things beyond normal communication. This love of art drove me to study Fine Art at Falmouth University for my undergraduate and, now thanks to the generous support of the Bakala Foundation, to continue my studies at the Royal College of Art on their two-year Master’s program in Painting. I developed a practice during my undergraduate exploring memory, nostalgia, and photography through the painting of old childhood photos onto large canvases. Over time this exploration has matured, and I’ve become interested in the movement of post-pop art, in which the highly personal and highly formal interact. One of the things that most attracts me to study at the RCA is their emphasis on a multidisciplinary approach, where students are encouraged to think outside the confines of their subjects. I hope that joining this artistic community which has a proven track record of nurturing incredible talent will give me the best possible chance of an international career and developing my art further.