Tag: Simone Asia

Fresh Milk / Clara Lionel Foundation Artistic Fellowship

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Fresh Milk is pleased to announce the recipients of its inaugural contemporary visual arts Fellowship programme, made possible with support from the Clara Lionel Foundation (CLF). This initiative provides four unrestricted grants of $20,000 USD, along with a $5,000 USD travel grant for each Fellow. The Barbadian-based Fellows, Anna Gibson, Simone Asia, Russell Watson and Ronald Williams, have demonstrated commitment to their practices, working across painting, sculpture, drawing, moving image, and digital media. Each Fellow was presented at a public event at the Caribbean Brushstrokes Gallery on August 9th and will benefit from sustained support during this 10-month programme from September 2025 until June 2026, culminating in a 2026 exhibition curated by Dr. Natalie McGuire.

On May 21st, 2025, the Fresh Milk team including Annalee Davis & Katherine Kennedy, hosted a roundtable session bringing together diverse participants to discuss critical issues in Barbados relating to the CLF’s core pillars, including contemporary visual arts, health care access and equity, gender-based issues, environmental concerns, and the impact of technology on society. The insights provided, informed the four nominators with expertise in contemporary creative practices, in their selection of the Fellows. The roundtable included Dr. Jo-Anne Brathwaite-Drummond, Dr. Clyde Cave, Carla Daniel, Amina Doherty, Dr. Robin Mahon, Patrick Moufarrige, Dr. Shayna Parris, Rae Skinner, and Leigh-Ann Worrell, while the nominators included Jason Fitzroy Jeffers, Dr. Therese Hadchity, Mark King, and Dr. Natalie McGuire. The full roundtable report can be found on our main Fellowship page here.

The exhibition, Where are the Tendernesses?, is celebrating the launch of the Fellowship and showcasing the Fellows work which runs until August 30th, 2025 at the Caribbean Brushstrokes Gallery. Read the full curatorial text here.

All photos by Dondré Trotman

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About the Fellows:

Simone Asia is a Barbadian-born illustrator recognized for her intricate penmanship and attention to detail. Her artistic influences span from local, regional and international figures, including Ewan Atkinson, Christopher Cozier, installation artist Tomoko Shioyasu, and illustrator James Jean.

Originally specializing in pen and ink, Simone has recently embraced mixed media, expanding her artistic exploration. Her work is deeply rooted in portraiture and journaling, often delving into themes of the human condition, botany, science, and metaphysics.

She holds an Associate Degree in Visual Arts and a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA, Hons) in Studio Arts. Throughout her career, Simone has participated in numerous local and regional residencies that have significantly shaped her artistic direction. These include Alice Yard (Trinidad and Tobago), Ateliers ’89 (Aruba), Projects and Space, Fresh Milk, and Punch Creative Arena (Barbados).

In 2016, she was awarded the Central Bank Governor’s Award and later that year held her first solo exhibition, Grey Matters, at Punch Creative Arena, Barbados Community College. Her work has since been featured in various projects, exhibitions, magazines and books internationally.

Beyond her personal practice, Simone works with Punch Creative Arena, where she helps facilitate exhibitions and events. She is also a part-time tutor in the Associate’s Degree Programme at Barbados Community College, teaching Drawing, 2D Visual Language, and Graphic Design: Illustration.

Anna Gibson is a Barbadian contemporary artist who explores women’s relationship with their bodies and its connection to cultural and social environments. Crafting images of body manipulation through realism and expressionism. She has been practicing for over 9 years and attended the Barbados Community College, completing her Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2017.

Anna has participated in some Barbadian local group exhibitions at UN Women 1in3 Art Exhibition at the UN House Barbados, ‘Young Artist’ at The Barbados Arts Council Art Gallery, Reimagined: Unspoken Bodies and Spaces at The Frame & Art Co. and more. She also has experience painting murals with artist collective A3 Design, most notably for the Hilton Barbados, the Barbados Grantley Adams International Airport and the Barbados Post Office.

Russell Watson is a Barbadian artist and arts educator specializing in digital media and theatre. He completed studies in Drama in Education and Theatre Arts at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts in Jamaica and studies in Film Video, and New Media at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago at both the BFA and MFA level. 

Currently residing in Barbados, Watson lectures in film at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill campus and is the lead artist at the multimedia workshop RSTUDIO. 

His current creative work involves combining drawing, photography and animation for multimedia projection. The works present an ecosystem of beings and landscapes existing simultaneously across various scales and epochs, reflecting his contemplation of time and environmental fragility in the Anthropocene.

Ronald Williams is a visual artist who primarily works in digital media. While earning his BFA in Fine Arts from The Barbados Community College (BCC), he began experimenting with digital collage which he has since gone on to refine and develop into his individual style.

Since earning his BFA in Fine Arts from The Barbados Community College, Williams has gone on to work on multiple commissions and participate in various local, regional and international group exhibitions including exhibiting in Jamaica, Venezuela, Scotland and the USA. After following up a maiden local residency by accepting a Fellowship award to be a Vermont Studio Center resident in 2019, he participated in the Visible Man exhibition in 2021 held at the Bowling Green State University in Ohio and notably, and was featured in part of the Dak’Art 2024 program.

Fresh Milk presents ‘Resonance’

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The Fresh Milk Art Platform is pleased to present Resonance, a showcase of works by some of the artists who have participated in residencies or projects with the organization over the last six years. Resonance opens on Saturday, August 19th, 2017 from 2-4pm with a presentation about Fresh Milk’s programming and a chance to speak with some of the exhibiting artists, and will also be open to the public on August 21st – 23rd and 28th – 31st from 10am – 4pm each day. Come and see what Fresh Milk has on display during the regional celebrations of CARIFESTA XIII, and commemorate our 6th anniversary with us!

About Resonance:

res·o·nance
noun

1.
the quality in a sound of being deep, full, and reverberating.

2.
the reinforcement or prolongation of sound by reflection from a surface or by the synchronous vibration of a neighbouring object.

When Fresh Milk began in August 2011, it was an experiment based on the hypothesis that there was a need for spaces in Barbados where contemporary artists, writers, thinkers and makers could come to conduct their own creative investigations. Six years later, the experiment continues to grow organically locally and throughout the Caribbean, constantly being fed by the artists that we engage with.

Resonance plays on the phonetically similar word ‘residence’, taking this opportunity to celebrate our local artist in residence programme among other innovative projects, as well as regional residency initiatives. There is also synergy with the definition of the word; each of the creatives that have been involved with Fresh Milk have enriched the platform, their presence and contribution continuing to impact every new endeavor we undertake and reinforcing our desire to foster prolonged relationships with artists. This showcase is less about following a theme, and more about recognizing the dynamic trajectories of the participants’ varying practices.

It’s our pleasure to feature works by Barbadian artists Simone Asia, Evan Avery, Cherise Harris, Versia Harris, Raquel Marshall, Ronald Williams, Anisah Wood and Kraig Yearwood. Additionally, we are excited that this show coincides with CARIFESTA XIII in Barbados, and are pleased to be able to include works by regional artists Dominique Hunter (Guyana), Leasho Johnson (Jamaica), Oneika Russell (Jamaica) and Shanice Smith (Trinidad) – each of whom have also been part of the Caribbean Linked residency programme coordinated by Ateliers ’89 in Aruba, Fresh Milk and ARC Magazine. We look forward to maintaining our connections with each of these artists, the many others that we have worked with in the past, and those still to come in the future.

Directions to the Fresh Milk studio can be found on the About Page of our website, and for more information email freshmilkbarbados@gmail.com.

Fresh Milk featured in Chronicle on WCVB Channel 5 segment on Barbados

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Thanks so much to Chronicle on WCVB Channel 5, Boston, for including Fresh Milk in their programme focusing on Barbados, which aired on Monday, February 8, 2016. Take a look at Fresh Milk’s founder Annalee Davis and Barbadian artists  Simone Asia and Versia Harris speaking about their work and experiences with the platform.

In this short segment, we share the clip with Lennox Honychurch who speaks about the Morgan Lewis Windmill.

This video is courtesy of Chronicle on WCVB Channel 5. View the original clip on their website here.

Simone Asia’s Residency – Week 4 Blog Post

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Simone Asia, current artist in Fresh Milk’s 2015 ‘My Time’ Local Residency programme, shares her fourth and final blog post. This week Simone drew on experiences she has garnered throughout the residency, giving them an ethereal perspective based on the elements and their symbolism. Continuing to experiment with colour, materials and techniques has been critical to her time here, and led to artistic discovery and growth. Read more below:

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This was the final week of the residency, and overall I think I have benefited from this experience.

I did not go ahead with a wall drawing this time around. However, I experimented with shapes that I cut out to use as minimal collages. I wanted to explore the theme of elements that affected me either positively or negatively while I was here on site. These elements were water, earth and wind.

My thought process was initiated by the element of water. It affected my life by damaging most of my devices, while the rain affected my mood and joints. On a positive note, my experience at Fresh Milk led me to be more connected to nature (the element of earth) which is my elemental sign. I appreciated my natural environment more which made me feel calm and collected. The third was the element of air. The wind played games with me. Some days I would feel its lack of presence while other days its presence was overwhelming, knocking down all of my work on the wall which became very frustrating when I wanted to focus.

In order to express these elements, I referenced the platonic solids: the icosahedron, the cube and the octahedron, which represent the elements water, earth and wind respectively. I wondered if I should have used the element of fire – the tetrahedron – because I was affected a bit by fire later in the week. It is the dry season now and many fires happen. The presence of smoke affects my sinuses a lot and I was having issues all week. The pyromaniacs come out around this year, they use the sun as an excuse to burn the cane trash and bushy areas, but ironically most fires happen at night. Maybe I should have introduced the element of fire in my drawings… I feel perplexed. I always stress over small things.

I tried creating on vellum for the first time and found out it is a very tricky surface to use. Pigment liners, ink and vellum do not have a solid and stable marriage. The vellum does not allow any type of ink to dry onto its surface, so many times my hand would smudge the lines I made. I tried to avoid touching the parts I drew and I went as far as leaving it overnight so it would dry. The next day the marks and lines I made literally melted on the vellum – it was bizarre. I did not like it at first because I like to control the things I create, but afterwards I grew fond of the melted marks and smudges. It worked well with the drawing, giving a nice contrast where the water sign lay. It suited it more than what I had originally done. I did other abstract drawings utilizing the symbols, and I liked them a lot. I grew very fond of this work I made here in the studio. I think I am becoming more comfortable with using colour.

To my surprise, I saw Bambee this week. We stared at each other for a while as she lay in the dirt. I stood beyond the electric line, not getting too close. I had not seen her in a while. I think I saw some sadness in her eyes; maybe she will miss me. Maybe I am just delusional. This is a cow who does not share these thoughts. Oh well…

Overall I think my four weeks at the farm were productive. I enjoyed meeting all the international resident artists and other local visitors. I enjoyed the conversations with the Fresh Milk members and volunteers. My experimentation with colour and collage is a start to a new segment of my artistic journey.

I am happy with my progress. I want to thank Annalee Davis and the entire Fresh Milk team for the opportunity.

Simone Asia’s Residency – Week 3 Blog Post

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Simone Asia, current artist in Fresh Milk’s 2015 ‘My Time’ Local Residency programme, shares her third blog post. Other commitments and time constraints impacted Simone’s progress this week, but she continued to seek inspiration, brainstorm and churn out ideas, which she anticipates bringing to life as she continues her residency. Read more below: 

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The third week is now over and I feel like I did not do anything; it feels as though I spent less time on site this week than I did last week, and my hectic days still continue. I found myself having to rush from Fresh Milk most days to go to the University of the West Indies (UWI) because I was assisting my friend and fellow artist, Versia Harris, in painting sets for the graduating theatre students. It was a job that came up at the last minute, but being independent artists, we have to do things like this so we can earn income. It was really hard because I do not drive and I had to travel by bus. By car, UWI is close, but by bus it takes a while because you have to go into Bridgetown then take another bus.

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There were two bank holidays this week as well – Heroes Day on Tuesday and Labour Day on Friday. However, I came to the farm on both days because I needed to make up for lost time. I did not do as much as I would have liked, but I managed to finish most of the portrait. I was also behind on emails and other work I had to do outside of UWI and Fresh Milk.

I wanted to start some more pieces because I still brainstormed and wrote a lot of ideas despite my limited time. Other plans included a wall drawing, but I am feeling hesitant about that now. I feel as though I need to act on my ideas before my brain explodes. This week was tiring.

My birthday fell on the 2nd of May and due to all the overlapping projects, I did not have much time to relax and unwind. Despite feeling partially like a robot, I still found small moments of peace to admire nature when I was travelling on those busy days.