Spring is a busy time for Oxford watercolor painter Sarah Godwin, who has been a beloved fixture of the Double Decker Arts Festival since going full-time as a working artist in 2021. Although busy working on pieces to fill her artist's booth for this year's festival, Godwin stepped away from her easel to chat about her hometown's art scene, and how its long-running festival inspires artists and patrons alike.
[This interview has been edited for length and clarity.]
CR: Talk to me about the kind of art you create, and where you fit in as a creative within the Oxford community.
SG: I started doing watercolor art around 2016, when I was in school at Ole Miss. Watercolor is where I found my little niche and I fell in love with it. I went full time in 2021, and have been doing watercolor ever since.
I’m very heavily influenced by scenes and nature in Oxford and surrounding areas. I draw a lot of color inspiration from florals, sunsets, sunrises—just the landscape around where I live. All of my landscapes I kind of make mental notes about colors and shapes and perspective, and all that, but when I sit down to actually paint, I just kind of pull them out of my head and out of my memory. So they’re heavily influenced by Mississippi scenes, but they’re not actual scenes—they’re more abstract.
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Farley Hall by Sarah Godwin
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Watercolor map of Oxford, Mississippi by Sarah Godwin
CR: What do you think makes Oxford a special place to be a creative?
SG: I have found that people in Oxford, more so than any place that I have ever shown, just appreciate and fall in love with not only local art, but also the artists that create it. Everybody I know that comes to Double Decker just feels so embraced by the community, and feels like their work is genuinely appreciated and loved. It’s fun to feel loved alongside your art, and not just beside your art—not just have your art be loved, but also be loved back in return, as a person.
Oxford is really, really special. We’ve got the university, so I think that influences people’s love for arts of all kinds, whether it be food, or literature, or music, or actual visual artwork. People love it all. Wherever you fall in the creative spectrum, I feel like there’s room for you here.
CR: What do you enjoy most about the Double Decker Arts Festival?
SG: “Honestly, Double Decker is my single most profitable day of the entire year. There are so many people that come through and are just ready to support artists. They’re ready to buy, they’re coming looking for artwork. It’s a thrill all day to be able to sell. I don’t sit down all day, which is really fun. I’m constantly talking to customers, helping them pick out artwork, explaining the inspiration behind all of my pieces.”
“There’s no show quite like Double Decker. It’s really fun for an artist. There’s music all day, so you hear the music. There’s food trucks, different activities that are going on all over the square. There’s something for everybody at Double Decker.”
CR: What does the festival provide for both artists and patrons?
SG: “I think the exposure you get as an artist is incomparable to any show I’ve been to. It’s insane, the amount of people that are coming through your business and seeing your artwork.”
“For patrons, Double Decker is very particular about the caliber of artists that they let in, so you’re guaranteed that every booth and every tent contains high-quality art. They vet all the artists that come in, so nobody is like anybody else. They do a good job of putting together a list of artists that complement each other very well.”
To see more of Sarah's artwork, visit sarahgodwinwatercolors.com
