Masterworks News

The Masterworks for Nature group at the Greenacres Art Center gala. MWFN helped launch the spectacular Green Acres Art Center with a gala, art auction and sale.

Working in league with non-profit conservation organizations, MWFN has helped raise over $1.2 million in gross receipts toward their fund raising goals.



Member's news:

Friday, April 24, 2009 Cincinnati Nature Center Annual Art Show Location: 4949 Tealtown Rd. Milford, Ohio45150 Details: Cincinnati Nature Center will hold their 2009 art show and sale called "Life is but a Stream". Featuring 10 nationally acclaimed artists from Masterworks for Nature. Contact info: Tel: 513-831-1711,www.cincynature.org April, 2009 Member Nancy Foureman will be teaching an evening adult painting class April through June, concentrating on design and content at the Richmond Art Museum in Richmond, Indiana www.richmondartmuseum.org

Saturday, February 6, to Saturday, April 3, 2010 "The Great Ohio Wilderness and its Native People" Mary Louise Holt will exhibit her original paintings depicting the wildlife, landscape and indigenous people that once thrived on the Ohio lands before European settlement. The opening reception on February 6 will include a lecture by the artist. Location: Lioyd Library and Museum 917 Plum Street, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202 Contact Info: 513-721 3707, www.lloydlibrary.org

March, 2009, John Agnew was named Artist In Residence for 2009 at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Michigan.

December 20, 2008 Mary Lou Holt at Fort Ancient, Warren County In the pre-dawn hours on December 20, 2008 sixty volunteers from the Greater Cincinnati area joined historical artist, Mary Louise Holt, to reenact the Winter Solstice Ceremony. This annual event was practiced by the Hopewell Indians on the Fort Ancient site 2000 years ago. It is believed that the Hopewells set one of the mounds ablaze to greet the sunrise. With camera in hand the artist recorded every detail of the mock ceremony. The photos provided visual references for the artist to help her create a large painting depicting the event as archeologists believe it happened during Hopewell times. The completed painting will be part of the permanent exhibits displayed at the Fort Ancient Museum. December 2008, Masterworks members John Ruthven and Chris Walden were each asked to create an ornament for the White House Christmas tree.

April 2008, Masterworks held a fundraiser exhibit at Cincinnati Art Galleries for The Wilds, a huge outdoor zoo in east-central Ohio.

In March, 2008 member John Agnew traveled to Thailand to attend a meeting of the Tomistoma Task Force, a group dedicated to the conservation of the False Gavial. A giclee print of the painting of Tomistoma by John Agnew was presented to the workshop host, Uthen Youngprapakorn.

In January 2008, member John Agnew traveled to the Peruvian Amazon to photograph and paint Amazonian wildlife.

In January 2008, Masterworks members John Ruthven, Devere Burt and John Agnew joined others for an expedition to the swamps of northern Florida to look for Ivory-Billed Woodpeckers. They were believed extinct for 60 years, but were rediscovered in Arkansas in 2004. Masterworks had the good fortune to spot an Ivory-Bill! See John Agnew's account of the sighting at: http://herps2art.wordpress.com/ scroll to the bottom of the page for the original Ivory-Bill sighting.

In July 2007, John Agnew won the $10,000 Grand Prize in the "Paint the Parks," a national juried show of work about the National Parks. Sponsored by the Paint America Foundation (www.paintamerica.org).

In October of 2007, John received the "Award of Excellence" in the Society of Animal Artists annual show, "Art and the Animal," which opened at the Wildlife Experience in Parker, Colorado October 17, 2007.