The Old Barn. Ann Watcher, artist
By Gina Malone
While painting, Ann Watcher tries “not to think that I am making art but that I am putting pieces of paint down next to each other.” Calling it “art” even in her mind, she says, invites self-consciousness into the process and, consequently, her sense of discovery is lost. “The emotion I feel the most when painting is curiosity to see what I can do with the subject I am painting, and can I put my personal touches on it?,” she says.
A Hat From Asheville. Ann Watcher, artist
Watcher is never at a loss for inspiration, noticing constantly the world around her. “I find beauty everywhere,” she says, “from light glinting off of a pink frosted cupcake to the way a mother lifts up her baby with such love. I love to try to create special moments that may be very small but are universal, such as a young lady putting on her earrings or a red coat. I am inspired to paint because I love to communicate with people through art.”
Her childhood, during which she noticed patterns and pictures all around her and developed an interest in art, was spent with a military father and a mother who was a nurse. The family, which included five other children besides Ann, lived in California, Texas and, finally, Sumter, SC. Although her parents did not view art as a career and encouraged her to pursue nursing, Watcher majored in fine art at the University of South Carolina. During her college years, she earned an internship at the Corcoran Gallery of Art and then attended the New York Studio School. “I painted with other students from around the country and had a lot of fun in the big city for the first time,” she says. “I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Guggenheim and the Museum of Modern Art where I saw one of Monet’s huge waterlily paintings and thought it was the most inspiring place to stand in the city.” After college, she moved to NYC, where she had already met Richard Blum. The couple married and had two children, deciding when the children were of school age to move to Charlotte.
When her children were older, Watcher began to give herself back to her art and to explore painting on a big scale. “I particularly enjoyed going around rural areas and finding old barns and structures to paint,” she says. “Often I would go back to a barn to paint it again and the barn would be gone, so I became even more attached to painting old structures that emanate a warmth and community and the beauty of simple lines, and now are disappearing across the landscape.”
Asheville in the Morning. Ann Watcher, artist
Once her children had graduated, Watcher and her husband began looking for a homeplace in the mountains that included, for her, “a little room with a view.” They settled on Black Mountain. “Luckily, we were able to find a fixer-upper with a beautiful view that changes with the seasons and inspires my art,” Watcher says.
“When I paint from my home studio in Black Mountain, I look at the mountains and rest my eyes, or step outside and feel the fresh air and sunshine,” she says. “The mists in the summer and early fall are mesmerizing. From spring until fall, the flowers in the mountains put on a show with abundant blooms on the hillsides and stunning blooms of every color at the markets. I love the quiet nights on my street and the community of the little town of Black Mountain.”
The place where she lives and works even comes with at least one resident critic. “Last summer I was working and decided to put my painting outside to speed up the drying,” she says. “I placed the painting on the deck and went back inside. Shortly after, I saw a black bear walk over to the deck, look at the painting, nudge it with his nose and then move on as if he wasn’t that impressed, and I thought ‘everyone’s an art critic.’”
The Lace Curtain. Ann Watcher, artist
Her work is represented regionally at Lucy Clark Gallery & Studio, in Brevard. “The fluidity of her work is at once feminine and bold,” says Lucy Clark. “Her figurative work brings joy to the most intimate moments of life, and her use of color and composition is just masterful.”
Watcher paints in oils on all kinds of surfaces including canvas, linen and panels. She paints five days a week and, the rest of the time, creates in her head, exploring new compositions and ideas. “My art has evolved over the years with the realization that the more I know about art, the harder it gets because the possibilities are endless,” Watcher says. “I never want to paint something with the feeling that it is ‘work’ because I think that comes through in the painting.”
Instead, she wants others to find joy in the work she creates, as she does in the bits of life that inspire her. Often, when traveling and heading homeward again, she is physically affected by nearing Black Mountain. “I love to note the colors and textures, light and shape of the Blue Ridge Mountains as they meet with sky and cloud,” she says. “They are different in every season, always changing from green to gold, to all kinds of cerulean and even purple. In that moment, I am transported to a celestial place where I am the visitor, welcomed and inspired to create by something larger than myself.”
See more of Ann Watcher’s art at AnnWatcher.com or follow on Instagram @annwatcherart. Lucy Clark Gallery & Studio is located at 51 West Main Street, Brevard. Hours are Monday through Saturday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday 12–4 p.m. To learn more, visit LucyClarkGallery.com or call 828.884.5151.
