Christopher Gowell is an Ogunquit Art Association member-artist (Sculptor, Painter) and one of our 6 Showcase Artists at Barn Gallery for the 2022 Season.
Gowell’s Showcase at Barn Gallery will run from August 3rd – September 4th, 2022 with an Opening Reception on Saturday, August 13th (from 4PM – 7:30PM) and a Gallery Talk on Thursday, August 18th, 2022 (at 6PM).
Learn more about the Barn Gallery 2022 Schedule: https://barngallery.org/get-ready-for-some-art-in-ogunquit-barn-gallerys-2022-season/
Continue reading below for some excerpts from a discussion we had with Christopher Gowell about her background and work.
How long have you been a part of the Ogunquit Art Association?
Too long to remember.
Describe your art and art practice.
I’m trained as a classical sculptor, earning my MFA in sculpture from Boston University in 1974. I’ve been sculpting for 50 years.
I’m also the owner/director of Sanctuary Arts, a life long learning art school in Eliot Maine I started in 1999 and continue to run, hiring the best instructors I can find.
I also built a bronze casting facility – Green Foundry-which is now owned and run by Joshua and Lauren Dow.
I’ve been studying oil painting with Sean Beavers for over 20 years, creating one painting a year until more recently when I decided to abandon sculpture and spend my time drawing and painting. I’ve also been studying oil painting with still life painter Sydney Sparrow and figure painter Joshua Langstaff.
I’d always thought I would be an egg tempera painter in my next life. Realizing I was still alive, I decided to study with Sean Kramer at Sanctuary Arts and Koo Schadler at her studio in Alton New Hampshire. Now I am very happily on the path to becoming an accomplished egg tempera painter.
I love that I can reinvent myself and stay fascinated and engaged with different forms of making art.
What is the theme of the body of work will you be exhibiting in your showcase?
Transformation is the title of my body of work.
What materials, sizes, and processes are you using?
I’ll be showing a selection of my bronze sculptures as well as one marble sculpture. I’ll also be showing egg tempera paintings, some oil paintings, and a few drawings in a variety of sizes, mostly on an intimate scale.
What ideas are you expressing in the body of work you will be exhibiting?
I’m very involved with narrative, especially recording with paint the lives of my friends and neighbors, and dogs, chickens and cats.
What is the take away idea from your exhibition?
I hope people realize that the life of an artist, while not necessarily of monetary significance, is always entertaining and filled with passion. Learning is a life long pursuit and keeps enriching and fulfilling our lives.
Photos of Work by Christopher Gowell.
ARTIST BIO: Christopher Gowell
Christopher Gowell is a sculptor, painter, and director of Sanctuary Arts, an artists’ residential and studio community with a “skill-based” art school and bronze casting teaching foundry. There she lives, and has her studio in an active arts environment.
“My art education began as a child at Munson Williams Proctor Institute, a museum school in Utica, New York. I attended Syracuse University for two years, took sculpture classes at the Corcoran School of Art and George Washington University, and completed my undergraduate degree (Summa Cum Laude) at the University of New Hampshire in 1974. I earned my Master of Fine Arts from Boston University in 1977, working as a graduate assistant teaching basic and intermediate figure sculpture. My commissions include a tidal pool relief for the Seacoast Science Center in Rye, NH, a bronze fountain of Alexander the Great with two companions, a six foot bronze of an 1870’s millworker and her son for Nashua New Hampshire’s waterfront, and an eight foot by seven foot fire fighter’s memorial for the Manchester NH fire department. I also design and carve traditional slate tombstones, most of them for Martha’s Vineyard.“
Learn more about the Barn Gallery 2022 Schedule: https://barngallery.org/get-ready-for-some-art-in-ogunquit-barn-gallerys-2022-season/
Interview by Dustan Knight.
