My work explores the inner world, the space where memory, emotion, and imagination intersect. It's inspired by landscapes I've experienced, vivid dreams, and the quiet transformations we go experience as we journey through major life transitions. Working primarily in watercolor and mixed media, I build layered, dreamlike scenes that blur the line between what's real and what's imagined, familiar and otherworldly at the same time.

The women who appear throughout my work aren't specific people. I leave them mysterious and partially obscured on purpose, so they can personify a feeling, a memory, or an experience rather than a portrait of any one person. The landscapes around them are loosely based on places I've traveled, drawn from reference photos and notes I take along the way. I work between structure and spontaneity, painting what was really there and how it felt to be there at the same time.

My process is detailed and meditative. I build each piece up in many layers of watercolor, and finish with pastel, ink, and gouache for texture and added depth. Though my work often carries an undercurrent of mystery or tension, it ultimately searches for moments of hope, connection, and transformation.

Biography

Anna Wise was born in Birmingham and has lived in Nashville since 2011. She is a self taught artist whose watercolor and mixed media paintings create inner worlds that blur the line between memory, dream, and nature. Through layered forms, symbolism, and atmosphere, her work explores themes of transition, liminality, hope, and transformation. She has participated in national solo and group exhibitions, including Lorenzo Swinton Gallery, Grand Bohemian Gallery, Red 225 Gallery, and Cat Eye Creative, as well as established art fairs including The Other Art Fair and Superfine Art Fair. She was Graduate Hotels artist in residence in 2024, and artist in residence at Creston Arts Center in 2026.