May 15, 2014 Good Fruit Grower cover

May 15, 2014 Good Fruit Grower cover (Courtesy Kathleen Coy)

Our May 15, 2014, cherry issue cover is a reproduction of an original oil painting by Kathleen Coy of Council Bluffs, Iowa. I first used artwork on the cover of Good Fruit Grower in August 1993.

The inaugural painting was “Row of Bins,” a 16″ x 20″ oil by the talented Manson, Washington, artist Ron McGaughey. It was a great beginning for the many Good Fruit Grower art covers to come.

In years past, I would scout the various art shows in the valley, looking for artwork that would represent the state’s fruit industry in some way.

In recent years, while I continue to haunt local art shows, the possibilities and geographic range have widened with the advent of Etsy.com, where I can look for original fruit art from around the world right at my desk.

Paintings by artists from the United Kingdom, Ohio, California, Pennsylvania, and other states, as well as by many artists from Washington State, have become some of our most popular covers.

Of course, we have also heard such rumblings from other readers along the lines of “glad your year of art covers is over!”

First Good Fruit Grower painted cover

A painting by Ron McGaughey was Good Fruit Grower’s first painted cover in August 1993.