gret mackintosh
Excited and honored to say that I was featured in (my long time favorite magazine) Garden & Gun! (the June/July 2024 issue)
I loved working with everyone involved in the process and feel like the result is so authentic and thoughtfully put together.
To read the article and learn more about me (!) click HERE.
In 2023 I was commissioned to create a large map painting to be hung in a conference room in an office on King Street in downtown Charleston. I wanted to create something different from previous Charleston maps so took a more horizontal approach and focused on the harbor and the surrounding islands.
Land shown on map from left to right: Johns Islnad, West Ashley, James Island, Charleston Peninsula, Mount Pleasant, Sullivan’s Island, Isle of Palms.
Charleston Harbor and Surrounding Islands
(3) 30 x 30”
acrylic on wood panel, finished in resin
2023
* map inspo with a 12” grid sketched out for reference.
This is a grant given to a lowcountry artist each year by the Coastal Community Foundation. Ill be creating a large map painting of the peninsula - and hopefully a few other smaller peices that tie in - and having a show/celebration somewhere downtown in late fall of this year.
Stay tuned for details - and if you haven’t already, sign up for my newsletter to make sure you don’t miss the invite!
Here’s a link to the press release article: Lowcountry Artist of the Year
Earlier this year, I was commissioned to do a watercolor marsh painting to be used as part of a wedding suite. The bride wanted a washy, earth toned marsh scene to match her Boone Hall wedding. The 8x 1 0 painting was printed on the backs of the invites (and could be a framed print for all the guests!) and the original hangs in the newlyweds’ home!
Great idea - and so much fun working with these girls!
This fall, Garden & Gun’s International Sporting Excursion was held in England, and like last year, I helped create the place cards for the finale dinner at Lucknam Park. The theme this year being British-inspired: phonebooths, the Union Jack, roses, pheasants, horses, and tea time were the focus.
Here are some shots of the table scape at the dinner:
Here are some pictures of the in-progress place cards from the first sketches in my studio at Redux to calligraphy by Page Palmer….
In September I did a series of 40 small watercolor paintings that were used as place cards at an event in Italy at the Lo Sparviere vineyard that Garden&Gun hosted.
Here are some images of the watercolor pieces pre-calligrapher.....
And here are some pictures (post-calligrapher for the names!) from the place cards at the event...
A wedding gift for my brother and now sister-in-law : )
A pen & ink (and watercolor, and gouche) of the Gadsden House, their wedding venue in downtown Charleston.
If you're interested in commissioning an architectural drawing like this, shoot me an email and we can work out the details - currently, I charge $195 for an 8x10 (on paper/unframed), including shipping.
Update:
Here’s another watercolor commission of the Gadsden House - but from the other side….just wanted to have them both images here for comparison….same thing applies, contact me for info on commissioning a painting for your invites, guest registry, or wedding gift!
A few of the settings: Linville Gorge, Beech Mountain, and Topsail Island in North Carolina, John's Island, Rockville and the Congaree Swamp in South Carolina...
Here's a preview of the available assortment:
where I will be turning my house into an art shop for a day!
Cleaning out the studio and all of the art that has accumulated!
Need art for empty walls in your house? Looking for a few early Christmas pressies? I'll be selling everything from (unframed) mini watercolor drawings (lots under $20) and greeting cards with my art printed on them ($5) to large abstract pieces - everything will be priced to sell!
Follow me on instagram ( ----> gretmackintosh) to see pics of the pieces i'll be selling with prices of each - posting a different one every day until the sale!
A recent commission for a wedding gift.....
I took some watercolors and water soluble crayons on our canoe adventures in the Congaree Forest the other weekend and created some swamp-inspired tiny landscapes….
For the past few years I've been painting themed Easter eggs for each member of a friend of mine's family here in Charleston - it's not something I would want to do in mass quantities (hello miniature painting + on a hard to hold wooden egg) but it's a refreshing change to switch up subject matter and medium and challenge myself in different ways - and every year this commission project surprises me in new ways....
She gives me a rundown on the important events of the past year for her little girls (castle beds and purple blankets for the babies!) and for her and her hubs, and I do my best to represent that on a wooden egg for everyone's Easter basket!
I should also say that this is originally inspired by my mother and an artist named "Bonnie" in NC that paints easter eggs (among many other things like faux finishes and murals). My mom has kept up this tradition my entire life, so I have a representation of each year of my life painted on a little wooden egg that my mom pulls out at Easter - and it's SO fun to look back at them all now!
So, this year, a trip to NYC was on the list, so I decided to paint the NYC skyline with the Statue of Liberty front and center (this was also in the list). I love the way it turned out so much that I've been pondering reasons to do more miniature skyline paintings...
2016 is already off to an incredibly busy start with the animal portraits ...but before I get too submersed in the new year, it's nice to look back at some of my work from last year....
Happy News: My dog portrait paintings are featured on Modern Dog Magazine's website as a fave find for 2016!
Here are a few in-process shots I took while painting this cute little Yorkiepoo named Dixie.
I always start by putting a few coats of color on the background (that way, there isn't any bare canvas peeking through if certain spots of the background do show through). Then, I sketch the animal onto the canvas in pencil and build the paint up from there! It's neat to see the phases captured in pictures - It gives it a sorta color-by-numbers look to the process. The highlights and the details always come last, along with a coat of varnish for protection.
...and on a side note: with Christmas right around the corner (crazy, I know ), the holiday commission orders are already coming in! Turn around time is usually around 4-6 weeks depending on size of painting, so contact me soon to get on the list!
