Collection: Dinner Guests

Portraits from the Ether

Dinner Guests is an ongoing series of spontaneous, expressionist, figurative watercolors by Memphis artist Bobby Anderson, in which imagined faces and characters emerge through improvisation, gesture, color, and discovery.

There are no predetermined sitters. Each painting begins as an exploration. Loose watercolor washes, ink lines, brushstrokes, accidents, and intuitive marks accumulate until someone begins to appear.

I paint until somebody shows up.

Some arrive quietly. Others seem to announce themselves. Each becomes a unique character who exists only because of that particular moment on the page.

Every Dinner Guest is an original, one-of-one work on paper and is titled by the date it appeared. Together, the series forms an ever-growing gathering of strangers, personalities, expressions, and unexpected visitors that bring a feast color, expression, and character.

See who's arrived. Invite one home.