Featured Artist Mark Witzling

Artist Mark Witzling presents a refined portfolio of abstract paintings, rich with detail and meaning. Visit his website to see more of his work.

 

 

I create powerful visual representations that reflect ideas and concepts which impact my surroundings and my life. Visual art is a form of deep human expression. Like music and dance, it is a form of communicating beyond the written and spoken word. Painting abstractly in oils is my method for this expression. While the process is often solitary and meditative, I also find interaction among artists to be energizing and inspiring.

 

 

Perhaps because of my background in strategy, marketing and branding, complex ideas intrigue me. The nuanced layers tease out the intricacies of a concept. I apply this to my painting approach by building up layers and excavating back into these visual stacks. I repeat this push-pull process to evoke a sense of depth and understanding in the work.

 

 

I enjoy the creative freedom of nonrepresentational art, although physical surroundings of landscape and geography frequently influence my approach to a painting. I’m glad to allow this to occur spontaneously.

 

 

My role as Executive Director of Craft Alliance (2018-2023) exposed me to a wide variety of forms of creative expression. Now as a committed full-time artist, I continue to allow these forms to stimulate and influence my own creative expression.

 

 

My specific process uses cold wax medium blended with my oil paints to create the layered effects I seek to express. I often start with an underlying layer of graphite mark-making to bring interesting forms to the artwork and to suggest the compositional approach.

 

 

My painting process rarely uses traditional brushes. Instead, I work responsively with a variety of tools such as pastry scrapers, brayers, brooms, sticks, and even old credit cards to activate the surface.

 

 

I have studied, painted, and taught workshops in studios across the country, from Santa Fe and Albuquerque to Montana, Wisconsin, and North Carolina. My art is included in private and corporate collections across the United States as well Europe and India.

 

 

I was honored to receive a Diderot Grant and a Regional Arts Commission Grant to participate in an artist residency at Chateau Orquevaux, France. I am thrilled to have my art appear in the book Cold Wax Medium – Techniques, Concepts, Conversation (Crowell & McLaughlin) and to be included in Artfolio 2021, A Curated Collection of the World’s Most Exciting Artists.

 

Mark Witzling invites you to follow on Instagram and Facebook.

 

 

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