Breckinridge Painting

Mark Whitmarsh was born in Denver Colorado. He has been painting for more then three decades. Mark's paintings are in many public and private collections. Raised in Lakewood Colorado, near the foothills of the beautiful Rocky Mountains. Back packing and ski racing were his favorite outdoor activities during his early years. Art has always been very important to him from grade school through high school. Showing in galleries in his teenage years,and wining an award in the national watercolor society exhibit at age 18. Educated at the university of Wyoming, and the Rocky Mountain school of art and design . During this five year period he had the opportunity to study with Mark Dickson, the great abstract landscape painter from Denver Colorado. This was a pivotal period for the artist, and during this period he gravitated towards a more reductionist attitude toward painting the landscape. Strongly influenced by the Abstract Expressionism movement throughout the 90's and into the turn of the century, Mark developed a freely expressive mode of creativity. Mark has shown throughout the southwest, including New Mexico,Colorado, Texas, and Oklahoma. During this time he has had 22 ( one man show's) at southwest gallery in Texas. Also during this period he was active in many group shows throughout the US, including, New York, San Francisco, and Chicago. Paintings are included in many public and private collections. Permanent collections :Fountain place downtown Dallas, and Lincoln plaza in north Dallas. Mark recognized early on that Ce'zanne's paintings were both depictions of his little sensations of still life, portraiture ,or landscape, and synthetic compositions prophetic of cubism and abstraction as these styles were being developed during the 20th century. The arrangement of colors, and the physicality of paint and texture is as real an art form as the subject matter depicted. "There is a simplification going on, an elimination of detail and color to turn the whole work into a harmony of color and light" The paintings sometime's develop very quickly, and very realistic , then they can be Broken down to a more universal language of color and texture. This whole process can be over long periods of time. Routine and hard work play a major role in the development of this freely expressed creative process. Working less more often helps with the burnout problem most artist face.