Anna Hvid

A continuous search runs through Anna Hvid’s work, one that has gradually found its most direct expression through painting. After pursuing a PhD in social economics, she now works as an artist from her studio in Copenhagen, primarily with acrylic on canvas and linen.

“Colour to me is everything. It is the reason I paint,” she explains, placing colour at the centre of her practice. Rather than beginning with a defined subject, her work often starts with a chosen palette, allowing the motif to emerge afterwards. This approach creates compositions where colour leads, shaping both structure and atmosphere.

From Idea to Image
Her process is intentionally open. Working without sketches, she moves directly into painting, allowing each piece to develop through making rather than planning. “Once inspiration is there, I just want to get on with it… the final result is almost always very unexpected to me,” she notes, describing a way of working where the outcome often shifts significantly from the initial idea.

The human figure appears consistently throughout her work, serving as a point of departure within compositions shaped by colour relationships and spatial tension, exploring negative space and drawing on photographic references.

At a foundational level, Anna’s visual language is informed by early influences. “My grandmother’s tapestries and their mosaic-like patterns are always with me,” she reflects, describing a lasting reference that continues to inform how colour and form are arranged in her work.