Exhibition - John Meek Watercolor and Photography

Friday, Jun 9, 2023 from 10:00am to 4:00pm
Museum of the Mississippi Delta
1608 Highway 82 West
662-453-0925

The Museum of the Mississippi Delta is pleased to announce a new art exhibit featuring the works of John (JP) Meek beginning with an opening reception May 9, 2023. John Park Meek spent the first 14 years of his life three miles east of Merigold, MS learning to raise cotton, soybeans, catfish, rice and all the standard garden vegetables on the family farm. Unhappy with the local private school, he convinced his parents to let him attend the Principia, a co-ed private boarding school in St. Louis where he managed to earn enough credits to get accepted to Delta State University as a freshman at 16. He took art under the legendary Sammy Britt. 

A few years later he would play in a band and become good friends with one of Sammy’s star pupils, the oil painter extraordinaire Gerald Deloach. He also taught John painting, explaining his views on light and color and how to paint them accurately. In 1993, he opened an art gallery in Merigold and began offering watercolor workshops taught by the late Jim Seale, a true watercolor master. It was Seale who suggested that Meek become a full-time painter and taught him many of the techniques he uses today.

In 2015, Meek finally took his mentor’s advice after building up a selection of works. Meek then sought counsel from his old professor Sammy Britt who told him that people would tell him he was doing watercolor all wrong, but he should ignore their criticism and continue to paint in his own way because he was doing great. Britt added that Meek should always paint what inspires him and he has heeded that advice.

Having been an avid photographer since Meek was a child, he is including several photographs in his show. Meek lives, works, and gardens on the 18.2 acres that is left of the family’s Tallahatchie County farm located on the banks of the Tallahatchie River near Glendora. He spends most days roaming back roads for inspiration and hunting arrowheads unless it’s actively lightening.

Exhibition Date: May 9, 2023 - June 23, 2023

Select a Mississippi town to find
the Best Things-To-Do and Places To Go around you
George County
Jefferson Davis County
Walthall County
Wilkinson County