Anne Neely — Painter

My year at the Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program (SWSP) was a year of changes. When I entered the program my painting practice had been based on what I saw in nature and how I felt about it in relation to the beauty and then the foreboding of the planet’s destruction. As I began to step away from this body of work, I realized that my lens had shrunk as I was processing the cancer that had just recently lived inside of me. It was Sarah Sze who fashioned the words most accurately, when visiting, to describe my work as: “The sense of looking through the body was as if I had inverted my binoculars.”

Realizing a sense of place has always been part of my practice as a painter. I believe it comes from all those years of engaging the Maine landscape through my oil paintings and watercolors. My suite of paintings “The Bridges of Brooklyn” settled me instantly in my new studio. By rooting myself in a place with these paintings, I was able to explore ideas from my imagination and come to terms with the year.

At SWSP, I worked alongside of a terrific group of fellow artists whose generosity and humor kept me wholly engaged. I loved my time there and the work that grew from it came from having the freedom to explore the hidden places marking the year. I have the Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program to thank for this extraordinary experience.

SHARPE-WALENTAS STUDIO PROGRAM RESIDENCY, 2024–25