Mendocino Eco Artists (MEA) are a group of artists who work together to promote conservation and restoration of the local environment. We are professional painters, sculptors, and photographers who live, work, and draw their creative inspiration from this beautiful place. We work as partners with Local Environmental Groups and use our art to help increase public awareness of our region's challenges and to raise funds through sale of our artwork to help our conservation partners achieve their goals.
Karen Bowers, Mary‑Ellen Campbell, Maeve Croghan, Eleanor Harvey, John Hewitt, Julie Higgins, Debra Beck Lennox, Keith Middlesworth, Deborah Nord, Janis Porter, Paul Reiber, Bob Rhoades, Pat Scott, Cynthia Crocker Scott
The Mendocino Eco Artists are having an art show celebrating our local State Parks. Stop by the Stanford Inn to view our amazing artwork.
Karen Bowers works in watercolor and mixed media, Karen has earned top awards in national juried shows and was chosen as an Artist-in-Residence at Yosemite National Park. She teaches in her studio and at Mendocino Art Center. Her work can be seen in her studio, by appointment, and at Mendocino Art Center.
Mary-Ellen Campbell has taught Book Arts workshops across the US and abroad. As a multidisciplinary artist who does graphics, painting, sculpture, printmaking, book arts, and mixed media work, she has had 16 national/international solo exhibitions and over 80 group and invitational shows.
Maeve Croghan paints from a deep connection to the environment. Her love of the land is understood in her color filled paintings. Recently her paintings were chosen for exhibits at the Matsumoto Museum in Matsumoto, Japan, and for Museum of the Living Artist in San Diego. Her paintings are featured on the wine labels of Castoro Cellars of Templeton, California.
Eleanor Harvey finds inspiration from the surroundings, including the ocean, forests, and inland scenes. For the last few years, she has ‘painted’ almost exclusively with stick oil pastels, giving her the ability to combine her love of drawing with the exquisite colors of this oil-based medium.
John Hewitt is a well-known watercolor painter and teacher. Since the 1980s he has at College of the Redwoods and, for the past 15 years, the Pacific Union College Summer School of Art, a college credit course in painting. His paintings have been juried into over 140 prominent watercolor society exhibits, winning over 30 awards.
Julie Higgins’s work is a constant process of story telling and pushing through the mundane of life into the magic, and the imaginary. It is feeling, emotion, and play set in an ever nurturing landscape with juicy earthy women, sensual form and lots of color. This whole process is how I have come to understand my self and my life in my community and in the world.
Debra Beck Lennox is a painter, printmaker, & architect who loves exploring many subjects from oceanside tidepools to life under the redwood trees. Her intuitively simplified visions of the natural world move back and forth between color and black and white as she experiments with seeing familiar subjects with new eyes.
Keith Middlesworth started his sculpting career in New Mexico using both wood and stained glass. In 2008 he discovered the lost art of neon glass tube bending and started sculpting his neon into art forms. His award-winning art can be seen in storefronts and galleries around Mendocino County.
Deborah Nord is an artist who has made her way from South Louisiana to northern California. She earned a BFA from New College of California. She has gained her expertise as a landscape painter from much dedicated practice. She has been a supporter of environmental causes which naturally coincides with being a nature artist.
Janis Porter is a Mendocino watercolor artist who was born, raised, and educated in Berkeley, California. After a lifetime interest in art, she began painting watercolors in 1998. Janis moved to Mendocino, California in 2001 to pursue her painting career. Initially, Janis’s watercolors focused on botanical images and still-lifes. Now, her work has shifted to expressive landscapes of the northern California coast.
Paul Reiber's work encompasses a wide range from furniture with carving to sculptural chairs, from small relief carvings to large architectural details. Recent work has centered on the human figure in relationship to plants or animals and the narrative and symbolic possibilities of those relationships. This work explores a range of emotions including contemplation, sadness, anger and exhaustion.
Bob Rhoades's drawings, paintings, and prints are his primary works, while the skills of talented colleagues in textiles, ceramics and digital imaging have enriched fueled his enthusiasm for mixed media and 3D work. For the last 10 years he has been leading small groups of art and culture interested travelers to Paris, London, Florence, Nice, Vienna, Prague and Barcelona.
Pat Scott enjoys working with three-dimensional forms: wood, stone, clay, found objects, cement or metals. She focuses on include endangered species, musicians, political statements, domestic animals, and currently bird forms in various media. Her work frequently has a humorous message, often a necessary component when working with such resistant and challenging materials.
Cynthia Crocker Scott's paintings in both oil and water media are usually representational, but often explore the boundaries of abstraction. Many of her paintings are called “skyscapes” since the color and light relationships of the sky with sea and landforms are the real subjects, and there is always something new to explore. She is a founding member of the Mendocino Eco Artists.