The Forst Inn Art Gallery

Art comes in many forms.
We are pleased to have created a space within the Forst Inn to showcase spectacular visual art from regional artists. 
​Our gallery is open when we are open for events.  Please watch for more details on current and upcoming exhibits.

CURRENT EXHIBIT

The Beauty of Everyday Things, Watercolors By Jim Dolan
April 13, 5:30 - 7:30:  Exhibit Opening/Artist Reception
A frequent award-winning watercolorist, Jim was named Artis of the Year in 1999 by the California State Senate, He is a juried member of various watercolor societies including the Watercolor West Society in California, the Wisconsin Watercolor Society, and the Northeast Wisconsin Watercolor Society. His paintings can be found in private and corporate collections in Europe, California and throughout Wisconsin.

Born and raised in Chicago, Jim studied commercial art and illustrations at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts following four years of military service. After working for several years in Wisconsin as a commercial artist, Jim moved to California in 1981 where he held creative and executive positions with various marketing and advertising firms.

Following an early retirement, Jim moved from commercial art to the world of fine art, opting for the challenging medium of watercolor paining. While attending several watercolor classes and workshops presented by master painters during that time, he became “hooked on color’ and has remained so ever since.

In 2001 he and his wife and fellow artist, Joan, returned to Manitowoc where they continue to create art. For several years Jim has conduced watercolor painting classes for adults in their home studio and gallery.
​

PAST EXHIBITS

Ocean Energy - Drawings and Paintings of Lee Mothes
February 14 - April 8, 2018
From Lee Mothes: 
"​Drawing allows me to capture detail and subtle nuances of light, especially with waves. To me there is a magic when waves swell, break, splash and flow on a beach.  I'm enchanted by foamy surf,  the marks the waves leave on sand, and all the little swirls and shadows in the water. My challenge is to try to say new things about waves. 
These pencil drawings take up to a month or more to complete, from concept sketches to finished image. "

​Visit the Artist's website.

Building Bridges - The Photography of Chip Duncan
December 2, 2017 - February 11, 2018
Gallery Room One
​Chip Duncan is a filmmaker, author, photographer and President of The Duncan Group, Inc., a documentary production company formed in 1984.
​
Duncan's photographic images appear in the book Enough To Go Around – Searching for Hope in Afghanistan, Pakistan & Darfur (Select Books, NYC, 2009). A photographic exhibition of Duncan's images from Afghanistan premiered during August, 2011 at the World Peace Festival in Berlin, Germany. A second photographic exhibition featuring images from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Darfur, Sudan premiered during September at the O Street Museum in Washington D.C.

Duncan has filmed in more than forty countries. His documentary television specials and series have won more than 125 national and international awards. Broadcast networks include PBS, HBO, Discovery, TLC, Showtime, Lifetime and Sundance Channel... among others.

Visit the Duncan Entertainment Group website.


Our Premier Exhibit - The Art of S. v. Gonia
​
September 23 - December 31, 2017

​S.v.Gonia is a self taught visionary artist, writer and poet. who has spent a lifetime perfecting her unique technique and voice. Without any of the usual instruction or training she has created intricate and beautiful works that flow directly from the heart. Over the years Gonia has shown in fine galleries around the country and hardly a day goes by that she isn't working on the next idea, vision or project.

Gonia was born by the sandy shores of Lake Michigan in the state of Indiana. Her father (a university professor) was a Dutch immigrant come to America after the war, her mother a country girl from the quaint, rural hills of western North Carolina. Her parents moved to east Tennessee when Gonia was still a baby and raised their daughter along with her four siblings amid a menagerie of critters on a small farm set at the edge of town.  It was in the freedom of this rural landscape of forest, field and nature that Gonia first began to explore her passion for both the inner and outer worlds of creative expression. 

Since those early days Gonia has lived in many different locations across the United States. . . always in places of great natural beauty and small town atmosphere. She has never tired of the country life or the demands of "chopping wood and carrying water". Always, it is the out of the way places, and the timeless rythms of nature and rural living that captivate Gonia's mind and heart, and inspire her creativity. She currently resides on a small farm in Wisconsin with her husband and their shepherd dogs, tiny-horses, dairy goat, zebu heifer, bengal cat, chickens and love-doves. She enjoys gardening, hiking, exploring, dancing, music, cooking, creating and especially, all things wild and beautiful.

Book One of Gonia's Heartwood Trilogy is completed, going thru editing and awaiting publication. She is also busy designing the manuscript's cover art as well as working diligently on Book Two and several other creative projects.

Visit the Artist's Website
​