Watercolor & ink · Mobile, Alabama

Landscapes that call themselves into being

Semi-abstract paintings of dunes, woods and Gulf Coast light by Vernon Fowlkes, a poet of fifty years who found a second language in water and pigment.

Available Paintings…

Don't Fence Me In
Don't Fence Me In · At Sophiella Gallery

Paintings at Sophiella Gallery, Mobile  ·  Poems in The Southern Review, JAMA, Commonweal  ·  Author of The Sound of Falling

Selected work

Dunes, woods and weather

A sampling of recent paintings, from the studio and at Sophiella Gallery. Click any painting to see it larger.

  • The BluffAt Sophiella Gallery
  • The Dying of the Light IIFrom the studio
  • Day's End in the Grassy Dunes IVAt Sophiella Gallery
  • The Wall of UnknowingFrom the studio
  • It Was Fun While It LastedAt Sophiella Gallery
  • Crossing OverFrom the studio
  • The Vision Belongs to You AloneAt Sophiella Gallery
  • Between the Darkness and the DawnFrom the studio
  • Dunes in PinkAt Sophiella Gallery
  • The Forgotten OneFrom the studio

Available Paintings…

Portrait of Vernon Fowlkes
The artist

A poet who paints

“The fluidity of watercolor and ink constitutes a visual poetry of its own.”

After five decades as a poet, Vernon Fowlkes began painting in 2022. He lets the water move the pigment until each painting suggests, and at times dictates, its own form, the same way his poems grow from collected words and unexpected turns of phrase.

He is a member of the Mobile Art Association, the Watercolor & Graphic Arts Society of Mobile, and the Mobile Arts Council.

Read Vernon’s statement and biography
The book

The Sound of Falling

“These poems shine with presence and tender care. … He reminds us why we are here.” Naomi Shihab Nye, Chancellor Emerita of the Academy of American Poets
Cover of The Sound of Falling by Vernon Fowlkes, Jr.

New paintings, shows and poems

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