Shipwreck Series No. 5 Painting

M.J. Hartwig is an artist, author, farmer and sometimes attorney, dividing his time between Montana, Arizona and Mexico. He spent some 18 years in the maritime industry, and, working his way up through the hawsepipe, ultimately earning his master mariner's license. As a mariner, Hartwig drove fishing vessels, small freighters, tugs and salvage ships. These experiences, together with his deep and abiding enchantment with the sea, drove the underlying currents of Hartwig's foray into painting. In these, as exemplified by his “Ship Wreck” series, Hartwig is drawn by the dichotomy between the oft romanticized serenity of the sea and its ever latent violence. Hartwig's other paintings are also inspired by the sea changes, found not only on the water, but as well in ever shifting skies and the effect these have upon the light that illuminates landscapes and, indeed, the nature of the world we live in. Coupled with this, is the influence of the notion that nature is ever fluid; that the universe abhors any notions of a static condition. And, while the natural world is in a constant state of evolution, on its terms, an effect that embraces the human species, the creations of humankind are ever subject to decay and dissipation.    M.J. Hartwig is a self taught painter, a classical liberal and chain smoker. He is, thus, an anachronism.Hartwig eschews polite company as he is of the opinion that politics, philosophy, physics and religion are the only things worth talking about.