OAKLEY, Ann
Ann P. Oakley was born at Tynemouth, Cumberland on 16 January 1929, daughter of Arthur Stafford Oakley (9 October 1899-8 October 1980), of the Sudan Political Service, and his wife Mary Dorothea née Holmes (2 June 1901-9 March 1992), who married at Christ Church, North Shields on 4 September 1926. On 19 October 1937, 8-year-old Ann, together with her 36-year-old mother and siblings Susan J. 7 and John Sidney 1, sailed from Birkenhead for Sudan but by 1939 Mary was back living at Bywell Vicarage, Hexham, Northumberland. Ann attended evening classes at Morley College, London on the history of art and in the 1970s sculpted at Inner London Education Authority adult groups at Greenwich and worked with Gerda Rubinstein's (1931-2022) open studio group followed by printmaking, sculpture, painting, and life drawing with Audrey Pilkington at Clock House Studio, Bruisyard, Suffolk. During the 1980s Ann concentrated on oil and print together with some collage and, as well as being a member of the Clock House Arts Association, was also with Suffolk Open Studios. Exhibitions included Woodlands Art Gallery and South London Art Gallery; St Julians, Sevenoaks, and in Suffolk at Halesworth Gallery and Snape Maltings Galleries; Maddermarket Theatre Gallery, Norwich and Strand Gallery, Aldeburgh. Ann P. Oakley died in the Waveney district, Suffolk on 6 June 2001 and the Halesworth Gallery held a retrospective exhibition of her work in 2002.