Artist Training

Mark began drawing at an early age and won national awards while in High School. He began pursuing art seriously at age 28 while having several young children and working full time as a self-employed brick mason. He built himself a small studio and began taking the winter months studying and practicing his drawing skills and also painting in oil. Attending art museums around the country was a stimulus that gave him incentive to continue working and growing. Viewing the works of the Barbizon painters who painted in the forests of Fountainbleu south of Paris made a tremendous impact on him. These artists were among the first artists to venture out into the countryside to seek inspiration and paint directly from life, what the French termed en plein air. He saw in their art and in the art of the French Impressionists who came after them a directness of approach, purity of color and truthfulness that registered strongly with his personal vision and aims as an artist.

Mark has studied at the Columbus College of Art and Design, North Light School and Atelier Du Nord School of Classical Realism. He also studied under plein air painters Matt Smith, Ralph Oberg, Ken Auster and John Budicin.

He is a founding member of the Ohio Plein Air Society, and a signature member of the American Impressionist Society.