While Mark Boedges paints many different kinds of subjects, the landscape is his first and greatest love. Like many artists, he strives to achieve a painterly realism in his work.  He does this for a few reasons because as students we are taught to focus on what is essential in our subject, but this can be a subjective judgment.  For Mark, what is essential about nature is its complexity.  Everywhere he looks he sees the grittiness, cragginess, and layered, fine-grained texture of the natural world.  It is this essential complexity he tries to capture in paint.  Experience has taught him that the best way to do this is to let the paint do what it does best: look like paint. Drips, splatters, wipes, palette knife, various brushes, and plenty of other abstract paint applications are crucial. Exactly how painterly to make it is a question for each painting, and is dictated by the subject at hand and what about it he most wishes to capture. And since he starts most of my paintings outdoors, it’s worth noting that weather, that simple and unalterable force of nature, shapes a great part of what he does and how he does it.  Time is limited and a complete and literal rendering of every element is neither possible nor desirable. So while the idea is to simplify, he is careful not to make it simple, for nature is never simple.

Among the top honors Mark has received are the Grand Prize for Landscape and a spot on the cover of International Artist magazine, as well as more recently the Joseph Hartley Memorial Award at the prestigious Salmagundi Club in New York City, Best in Show at the American Impressionist Society's National Exhibition, and Best in Show at the Scottsdale Salon of Fine Art.

To learn more about Mark and see more of his work, visit his website and follow him on Instagram and Facebook.