New Work

Surfacing

October 17, 2022markfineart

Surfacing

â€œSurfacingâ€ is a long and gentle rumination about what a surface is using my paints and brushes to create that musing on an interestingly proportioned canvas. I really wanted to make something that used the entire surface as a flowing whole. I wondered about scales, and at what scale does a surface become contained. Teasing out cycles, I will generally take a lot of time in a re-iterative exploration of form, depth & nuance in my painting and drawing. The art gradually reveals to me its own relationships and inner structure.

… Read more Surfacing

CatLynn – Our Cat Tree Dancer

May 23, 2021markfineart 2 Comments

My Lady told me she wanted an outdoor cat tree on our back deck. There is a wood wall that covers a sealed doorway. It would be the perfect place to put some sort of cat perch for our Furry Fellows George & Ulysses. She had the happy thought that I would make a Tree Dancer for cats as its structure. I was stalled on how to design and construct her proposed outdoor cat tree dancer. So I snapped at her suggestion we design one and commission a metal worker to build it.

W.I.P. Whale Dream drawing

March 30, 2017markfineart

Whale Dream is something I’ve been wanting to visit for a while now. There ought toÂ be a few drawings I can pull out ofÂ this general theme. This one isÂ the first -Â 17″ x 23″ finished size.

Just for the heck of it,Â I’m putting aÂ photo of the pieceÂ as it currently sits on the easel in my studio. The clamps that are holding the (well sanded) wood strips on either side of the plexiglass drawing board allow me to easily move my mahl stick to any orientation while I’m working.

… Read more W.I.P. Whale Dream drawing

Sky Drop

January 27, 2014Mark Johnson

I had an image of an Earth Mother type figure that acted as the central engine of life. A flow of light and energy and spirit that fills everything, guided by the organizing principal that seems to be what life is, weaving ever-more widely reaching possibilities out of the materials at hand and creating the wonders that we share in as living creatures.

I wasn’t sure just how a painting of this would come together, but I at least had an idea of what it would look like.

… Read more Sky Drop

Time

January 27, 2014Mark Johnson

There has been a shift, somehow, in ages past that has resulted in this place I now stand. I sometimes wonder what is the real place I am standing in. Is my perspective limited in some way? Ought I shift my viewpoint in order to really see what is around me?

Myth Becomes Dream

July 10, 2012Mark Johnson

I was thinking about the stories of time gone by. Stories that have become myths. And these myths in turn, as the ages pass, have slipped away. New people, new lands, new stories, each in turn slipping into that deep and faraway place we sometimes connect into and call it a dream.

acrylic 24″ x 18″

… Read more Myth Becomes Dream

Kuwaiti Tree Dancers

April 17, 2012Mark Johnson

The hotel in Kuwait City didn’t have any place for me to sit outside and enjoy the view, so I ended up spending a lot of time in our room drawing. Luckily I’d prepared for this, and was able to get a set of 4 Tree Dancer drawings finished.

Night Toad

January 21, 2012Mark Johnson 1 Comment

I had this strong mental image of the silhouette of a large toad on a toadstool as seen from below. How would that affect the lives, the patterns, the stories of those who lived in it’s shadow? I’ve started the tentative beginnings of a children’s fable, but in the meantime a completely different aspect presented itself to me visually. So I drew it out. Here are different stages of the drawing.

Sky Dancer painting WIP

August 9, 2011Mark Johnson

I thought I’d blog this painting’s progress because I haven’t done a painting for a while (those Tree Dancers keep leaping onto the page) and thought I’d try a different process than one I’d been using recently.

Passing Glances in 3 steps

July 27, 2011Mark Johnson

I didn’t think to take a photo of this piece until it was pretty well set, so there isn’t a real early stage photo. But it is interesting to see a couple of intermediary steps before the finished look. I didn’t try to make the colour of the stages look like the finished piece. I think that is part of their attraction, actually.

Passing Glances – I knew how I wanted it to look and used an image that was very close to the final layout in order to give me a good proportional drawing.

… Read more Passing Glances in 3 steps