The Art of Mark Boedges

I DID NOT WRITE THIS “While I paint many different kinds of subjects, the landscape is my first and greatest love. Like many artists, I strive to achieve a painterly realism in my work. I do this for a few reasons. As students we are taught to focus on what is essential in our subject; but this can be a subjective judgment. For me, what is essential about nature is its complexity. Everywhere I look I see the grittiness, cragginess and layered, fine-grained texture of the natural world. It is this essential complexity that I try to capture in paint. Experience has taught me 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 I most wish to capture. Similarly, it is the subtle ambient light in a scene and not necessarily