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…

Mountain Light II
Mountain Light II · 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.

  • Down in the GapAt Sophiella Gallery
  • The Forgotten One Among the RocksFrom the studio
  • Seabirds and DunesAt Sophiella Gallery
  • Revelation in a Dark WoodFrom the studio
  • Day's End in the Grassy Dunes IAt Sophiella Gallery
  • With the Sea Behind YouFrom the studio
  • Silent WitnessAt Sophiella Gallery
  • Creation Myth VII: The Birth of SpringFrom the studio
  • Abstracted and ReflectedAt Sophiella Gallery
  • Your Retinal Experience May VaryFrom 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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