Artist captures heart in paintings and sculptures

Mike Wagoner is shown with a recent work of art inside his studio at 451 Plummer’s Landing Road.

Local artist, Mike Wagner, truly captures the heart of his Fleming County roots.

When you walk into Mike’s spacious gallery and studio at 451 Plummer’s Landing Road in Fleming County, it’s easy to become overwhelmed.

Mike has three rooms filled with his works of art. Paintings hang from every wall. Sculptures rest alongside pottery and even more paintings on every floor and there are plenty of hand crafted walking sticks also.

Mike’s oil paintings are his main creation and his images often feature local architecture, including a large variety of barns and local historical buildings and homes.

He also enjoys painting fruits and vegetables and other subjects, which his wife, Jeri, grows on their farm.

“I’m into painting roosters right now,” he said as we discussed a recent painting. “I like their vibrant colors.”

Mike’s childhood memories are easy to see in his paintings.

“I grew up on a farm. It was a Dairy farm, and a tobacco farm. We had chickens and all kinds of animals.” He said of his images which capture the era of farm life in northeast Kentucky in the 1960s.

“I remember Dad’s first tractor was a Ford Ferguson. It was before Ford and Ferguson split. It was a little grey tractor and the wheels weren’t much bigger than a bicycle wheel.”

Many of Mike’s paintings feature old barns and tractors such as he grew up around.

“Now those barns are falling down and you don’t see tractors like that,” he said.

Another prominent image in many of the paintings is an elderly lady dressed in a long dress, with grey hair and slightly bent over.

“That’s my grandmother, Bessie Wagner,” Mike said. “She was a very small lady, and lived to be 99-years-old. I knew her better than anyone else. She represents that era.”

Mike has enjoyed creating art from an early age, working with pottery from a clay bank behind the family barn when he was young. He has since received a Masters’ degree in art from Morehead State University.

With his paintings in over two dozen galleries and displaying at as many festivals and community events each year, Mike’s unique, and one-of-a-kind paintings and even their framing, are becoming collectors’ items.

Each work stands alone and there are no reprints and each is framed with old barn-siding for an added rustic and nostalgic work of art.

To visit Mike Wagner’s studio call for an appointment at 606-748-1884.

Mike incorporates the image of his late grandmother Bessie Wagner into several of his works of art and draws heavily from his rural childhood for his inspiration.