Finished up a few pieces this week and of course progress on others!

Some of my art takes a long time to do because of the ridiculous amount of details I enjoy adding. It is not unusual for me to start a piece of artwork and then put it away for years before coming back to it. In many cases, I come back to working on it multiple times. This week, I have more or less finished a few older pieces and plan on framing them this week! Also I finished up a new commission that was pretty fun and full of bright ink colors!

This joker is almost done! 

"Emma's World",  about 4 feet tall, inks on wood.  This piece was a commission and so it is already sold. I will make prints of it.

Boo! Watercolor and ink on cold press illustration board

"Floaters 2", ink on cold press illustration board

"Chaos", ink on clay coated board

"Microverse 1", ink on cold press illustration board

Covid, Art, and Change

 Wowzers! What a year. I retired from my job as a scientific illustrator/research technician on July 1, I got remarried on October 10 to Jennifer, a wonderfully creative lady, and we have made lots of progress on building an art retreat at our property located in Sessums, Mississippi. 

Joe and Jennifer MacGown

Yep, I have long wanted to create an art retreat of some type where people can come look at art, create art, participate in art and music events, to enjoy and learn about nature, and even to start an artist in residence program. The idea sounds a bit crazy, but I believe it is feasible. 

the front of our art house

living room area with art on wall and art border

kitchen/dining

We plan on turning the existing house into a place for resident artists to stay while visiting and using other rooms as inexpensive sleeping options for various guests who may be at an event or something. We will be building a small cabin near the pond to live in, which gives us this amazing option! If all goes well, we are hoping to be ready by the fall of 2021. We already have a functioning studio, are about 80% complete on a cool art cabin/studio, have started building a gallery/workshop, and have a cool pavilion on the pond, which would be perfect for musicians to play on! 

pavilion on a snowy  day

art cabin

gallery/workshop started

rafters

studio

One goal is to have an artist in residence come stay for one to three weeks, with perhaps 3-4 artists per year. I would like each artist to leave their footprint on the property in same way such as creating a sculpture, painting a mural (or helping), doing a painting, or some other expression of what they do. Also, I am hoping to have artists conduct workshops in the gallery/workshop building that I recently started building. 

a fun view of studio and pavilion from pond

painting in the canoe! 

I am looking forward to completing these projects so we can get started on hosting art events as well as showcasing our own art! 

current work

love my inks

some of Joseph's whimsical ceramic pieces

Happy new year!