Blog

Not long after starting out on the trail, we cross under an overpass.  This will be a very welcome sight when we return!

When we first moved to Cottonwood, Arizona in 2003,  we loved visiting the nearby mountain town of Jerome.  As a  shy and nascent painter, I would often see Mark standing on a sidewalk totally absorbed in painting.  Although worried that I might be an annoyance, I finally worked up a little courage after watching him and said "hello".  He was friendly, and asked if I'd been painting long.  Only about two years, I admitted, and I had little experience painting plein air.  He said we should visit his studio at the Old Jerome High School, which had been turned into an art venue with painters, sculptors, musicians, and writers renting the classrooms.  Months later, during an open house at the Old Jerome High School Mark apparently took my husband aside and told him one of the classrooms was soon becoming available.  Renting it would make a great studio for me.  Stan decided that would make a fine Christmas gift.  On Christmas morning 2004, I opened a little box and found a key.  I was totally dumbfounded when Stan told me it was for a studio!  The rest is history.  I have to thank Mark--and, of course, Stan for giving me my start.  

I've been gone from the Jerome scene for a long time and learned recently that Mark had passed away.  I have one of his paintings, a small 8x10, and  I treasure it.

Let's take a look at Mark's work and his influence on my work.

Mark's work varied from landscapes of the Sedona area to his lyrical floral pieces.  I loved how he got the thought across without going into classical detail.  As you can see here, Mark didn't stand on formalities.  Definitely a free spirit!

,

Mark simplified complicated compositions and subjects.

His brushstrokes are direct.  Once again, making a complicated scene accurate, but simple.

Mark could say what needed to be said with the least number of brushstrokes.  

Some critiqued his style as "cartoonish".  Knowing Mark, I don't think he cared.  This was his style, his recording, in  his painterly handwriting about the town of Jerome, and the world around him.

Whenever I get too "fiddly" with some aspect of a painting, I stand back and tell myself, "just lay down one stroke".  Mark also taught me to take a painting and turn it upside down on the easel or view it in a mirror, before considering it finished.  That's when glaring mistakes reveal themselves.  By doing that, the painting is taken out of the familiar context and you are able to see it objectively.  

Finally, here's a shot of the Old Jerome High School where I found my painting voice and enjoyed 5 great years painting on the creaky wooden floors of what was the English classroom.

Nice, cool morning--let's do a short hike in a beautiful canyon!