Photo by Lisa Wells

Popopstudios hosted an Artist Talk with Anne Foresman on Thursday August 20, 2015. Anne spent five weeks during the summer at Popopstudios as our International Artist-In-Residence. The paintings she produced over the residency period were on display in the Popop Gallery.

Anne opened the talk by briefly telling the audience about her inspirations and thought processes. She said that one of the artists she particularly loves here in The Bahamas – for his simplicity, colour, shapes, subject matter and composition – is Amos Ferguson.

The glorious towering Poinciana Tree in Popop’s back yard served as further inspiration, as did a stingray she had seen swimming alongside the beach. Anne said that after watching the stingray she did some research and discovered that they had dots and various colours. She began to see how she could mix together the dots on the stingray and the marks on the Poinciana flower. These elements formed the subject of her first painting, an intriguing piece done in the primitive, graphic style of Amos Ferguson.

One of the pieces she created was done using just her non-dominant (left) hand. She said she would do this occasionally to let go of her judgement. She also experimented with action painting as a way to release more energy into her work. She produced a small series of abstract works by spontaneously and randomly splashing and smearing paint onto the surface. These paintings were not necessarily about the artwork as much as they were about the process in itself, which she said felt very liberating.