Telling Tales opened at the Mission Gallery in Swansea in November 2015. It toured to Oriel Canfas, Ruthin Craft Centre, Llantarnam Grange Arts Centre, the Ceramic Gallery at Aberystwyth Arts Centre and Craft in the Bay.
'The animals in Anna Noël’s small sculptures tread a delicate line between folk art and modernity; she has a particular sensibility that can include humour and solemnity, and an economy of form and painting. Combining form with painting is one of the special skills of work in clay. Anna has worked consistently for several decades in this exploration of the animal figure, sometimes paired with humans, and the necessary conventions of supporting thin legs in clay sculpture are beautifully resolved. Not the lion leaning against a clunky tree we find in the Staffordshire flat back, but a horse or a fox supported by a small hill, enigmatic and understated. Her avoidance of sentimentality is her great achievement.'
Alison Britton
Research Coordinator and Senior Tutor, Royal College of Art
