Backlit Elk River

Ric MacDowell first came to Lincoln County in 1968 as a VISTA volunteer to escape the draft and change the world. With a new 35mm camera, he began exploring and photographing the wild and rural terrain around the old farmhouse in Harvey’s Creek where he lived without running water or indoor plumbing. In 1972, Ric returned to that same house and farm with a master's degree and the urge to affect the world through teaching, community activism, and photography. He spent the next fifty years making his simple rural sanctuary comfortable and sustainable with a large garden to augment food supplies.

Great Blue Heron

As for many back-to-the-land immigrants in 1970’s West Virginia, the arts and crafts community had a profound effect on Ric’s photography. He became a board member of the Mountain State Arts & Craft Fair, where his work was selling well. Ric was also one of five creative producers to form the Lincoln School of Design. From his first job teaching all subjects to 34 middle school children in a 4-room schoolhouse, Ric’s teaching career evolved into a part-time activity, then gave way to ten years as extension agent and faculty member of WVU while working with rural communities for clean water and other projects.

Until the 1980s, Ric was generally known for his nature photography illuminating West Virginia wildlife and rural beauty. Then he made a peace mission trip to war-torn Nicaragua. He later spent a year in Zaire near the Ituri rainforest. His many photographs from both journeys became regional traveling exhibits showing two cultures in desperate conditions. In recent years, Ric’s photographic interests have also included abstract images with the inherent beauty of textures, colors, and shapes.

Lost Linoleum

Now living in Charleston, Ric continues to show and sell his photographs at Gallery Eleven and at regional art competitions such as Tamarack, Allied Artists Juried Exhibition, and Tri-State Arts Association Biennial Exhibition.

As Featured Artist at Gallery Eleven for April and May, his photographs will be on special exhibit in the gallery’s new location at 205 West Washington St. in Charleston’s Elk City Historical District. Enjoy our refreshments, music, and conversations with Ric and other gallery artists while you browse among paintings, prints, sculpture, ceramics, woodwork, glass, and jewelry by area artists.