About Mark

After formal art training at the renowned Ringling School of Art & Design in Sarasota, Florida, I spent ten years working for Husebo Advertising in Central Florida–eight as creative director.

My career abruptly changed course in 1994, when I incurred severe injuries to my right forearm, upper arm and back; injuries which prevented me from continuing full-time computer work, so I turned to painting.

In 1999, I renovated a seventy-two year old storefront located on Highway A1A in my hometown of Port Salerno, Florida.

A New Path

I have an innate desire to create, whether it’s soldering copper figurines (which I experimented with as a 10 year old), designing advertisements, or shaping bonsai (my hobby). The process itself of applying paint to a flat surface to communicate a three-dimensional idea appeals to me, yet the successful execution fills me not with satisfaction, but with an urge to create something new.

Subject Matter

It’s water that I am attracted to as a subject matter and the conditions I look for need to have striking, even mesmerizing patterns or reflections of light. I see the scene as a symphony of patterns, textures, tone, color, rhythm—a composition. This is what I try to capture. It might be light dancing on the sandy ocean floor in which baby sea turtles swim out to sea or the reflections of a fishing skiff on a calm foggy morning. Even though my paintings represent nature, ultimately they are visions honed in my mind and translated into a composition of shapes and color and patterns by way of paint onto canvas.

Technique

I work primarily in oil, but often make an acrylic underpainting. First, I do a series of small thumbnail sketches with varying compositions and select one or more to work up. Second, I draw the image on large newsprint then trace it onto the canvas. At this point, I use photographic reference to verify things like anatomy (turtle) or structure (reef). Third, I paint in the basic colors, keeping in mind how the semi-transparent glazing will affect the underpainting. Next, I add layers of semitransparent paint. I try to keep the dark areas transparent and the highlights opaque. I’m finished with a piece when it matches the image I had in my mind from the beginning.

Additional Notes

Typically, I work on at least 8 to 12 pieces at once and I prefer to work large.
I use Winsor & Newton’s Liquin as a glaze and medium which allows me to add new layers daily.