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: “The corporeal 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 being a plein air painter and watercolorist in Maine. These 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