Annie Adams
Oil painting at the Morris Graves Foundation

Our first Featured Artist is an artist whom I've come to know over the past three years as an art instructor and artist who was in the midst of moving into oils from a successful experience working in pastels. During our friendship I've had the pleasures of observing her experiences with oils and learning from her processes, and I'm inspired by her enthusiasm and success as an artist. I'd like to also make mention of Annie's vision and support of me in the development of my project here with the San Juan Artist Community, that it seems fitting to me that she is my first interview subject to launch this Featured Artist section.

In the Spring of 2004 Annie began the process of researching and applying to artist retreats. It was Fall of the same year that Annie was scheduled for her first artist retreat, through the Morris Graves Foundation in California, where she could paint and draw for three whole weeks of uninterrupted time. For many artist's a dream come true, which was certainly true judging by Annie's unbridaldeled exuberance and anticipation.

Our interview focuses on Annie's retrospective experiences giving us insights into where she went and what took place in her three week artist retreat November 2004.

Tori: Who was Morris Graves and what is the Morris Graves Foundation?

Annie: Morris Graves, a renowned artist, originally hailed from the Northwest. He is considered one of the leaders of the Northwest school along with his contemporaries Mark Tobey and Kenneth Callahan. Morris was considered the Spiritual Leader. He spend the last 25 years of his life in Northern California, at a remote property known as "the Lake". There, he built an amazing home, studio, a garden, and maintained a serene and private lifestyle. The Morris Graves Foundation was started by his long time friend and assistant, Robert Yarber, now the director at the Lake. Robert and his wife's vision for visiting residents is to have artists move forward with their work, by allowing a time and place for creativity and thought to percolate and come to fruition. The foundation is not limited to painters, composers, photographers, playwrights, novelists have been some of the residents to date. My residency was for 3 weeks, l stayed in Morris' studio, and remained at the Lake for the entire time. Though the Lake was exceptionally beautiful, what was an even greater gift was having uninterrupted time to completely focus on my painting.

Tori: With three weeks to paint how much art material were you able to take? Did you ship materials down there ahead of time or did you take just what you could pack into your car?

Annie: I packed up my art studio into my car, with all working paints, oils, acrylics, brushes, and prepared a variety of canvases,stretched, gessoed, toned and ready to paint. I wanted to spend my time painting, not preparing, so I did a lot of preparations the month ahead. I'm interested in the logistics of "what to take" as oil paintings are not famous for traveling well. I worked a little bit smaller than I would have liked to, however my biggest piece was painted as a diptych, a 24 by 36" combined with a 36" by 36" to create a 3 by 5 foot canvas. (See "Flight")

Tori: Describe for us your experience of getting acquainted with your new surroundings. What became your process of "seeing" your new space.

Annie: First, I decompressed from my life on San Juan Island by visiting with a good friend living near by the Lake in Eureka, California. I painted several plein air paintings in the area, entering the residency with new canvases underway, and practically a brush in each hand. The first week I would describe as being visually intoxicated by the beauty of that place. I had good weather and painted out on location. After I got some of that out of my system, I settled into a creative free fall, being inspired by the colors, the materials, the palette and sights at the Lake, as well as being in a dream studio. I learned through Robert's stories a bit about Morris, how he worked, what his tools were, and how thoughtful he was. Being a bit of a detective, I was very interested in all of Morris' tools still intact in the cupboards, that gave me insight into his artistic approach.

Tori: What was it like for you to paint for three weeks uninterrupted? What was the most challenging or interesting piece of work you felt you had completed?

Annie: I felt free to explore new ideas and ways of working with paint. Oil painting is not a casual medium, it helps to be painting a lot. Some of the paintings I did just flowed out in basically in one session, others I gnawed on for days until I felt satisfied. One of the first canvases, a seemingly innocent painting of a Redwood (seen at right) took 15 layers and 20 visits to the tree to figure out what was going on. I learned new ways of applying paint. That painting didn't work until I figured out new ways of working with paint.

Tori: What insight did you come away with from your residency about Morris Graves as an artist?

Annie: The main house was designed with a bank of windows, their shape was reminiscent of Chinese scrolls. I knew Morris was a tall man, 6'4" and so I was curious to see how he perceived the view. I stood on a stool to see his view point and what I saw was a very high horizon and all reflections in the dark water of the lake. The Lake struck me as a metaphor of an artists life. Sometimes the reflection is direct and clear, other times it is an altered or abstracted reflection based on an artist's unique perception.

Tori: Will you seek another program like this in the future? And will your completed work be available for people to view?

Annie: I am very thankful for my time and residency at the Lake. I hope to create another residency in the future to paint with the focus and intensity that I had there. In the meantime, my paintings will be on display at Funk & Junk from January 21st through the end of February 2005.

You can view most of Annie's recient works on her gallery page