-- Contributed
The lobby of Historic Fort Steuben at 120 S. Third St., Steubenville, is the showcase during May for the works of longtime Steubenville Art Association member Jim Watson. For 14 years, Watson has been the chairman of the Steubenville Art Association spring show, where he has won numerous awards. He also leads exhibits in the windows downtown and at Eastern Gateway Community College. Having a commercial art and illustration degree from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, Watson has won Best of Show awards twice in Oglebay Institute’s “Everyone’s Exhibit,” twice in the Wellsburg Art Association spring show and once in the Algonquin Mill Festival. A Weirton Steel employee for 36 years before his retirement, Watson has participated in various art association holiday and veteran displays and in shows in New Cumberland and at Bethany College’s Fall Annual. He has exhibited in the Summit Gallery/Top of West Virginia Weirton Steel Exhibit and was an award winner in that organization’s “Churches of Brooke and Hancock County” Exhibit. His work is known for its unmatched realism in oil paint and colored pencil. The fort display features a memorial “portrait” of the late K-9 officer Bono as well as 12 additional paintings and prints depicting wildlife, landscape, architecture and pets.