michael marks

2011-10-10T12:29:00.001-07:00

Eating, Spawning
Oil on Panel, 48 x 60"
2011

2011-10-10T12:09:00.001-07:00

Squaretail/Matt
Oil on Panel, 36 x 48"
2011

detail of face

detail of hands/fish

2011-10-10T11:17:00.000-07:00

Cutthroat/David
Oil on Canvas, 48 x 72"
2011

detail of face

detail of hand/fish

2011-07-06T11:06:00.000-07:00

Sixteen Walks
Gouache on Paper, 9x9" each

2011-01-27T15:26:00.000-08:00

Two Person Shelter
Monoprint and Gouache on paper
12 x 18"
2011

2010-11-07T08:49:00.000-08:00

Bernard Mountain Rain Break
Acadia National Park, Maine
Oil on panel, 2010
24 x 24"
NFS - part of Permanent Collection at Acadia National Park, Maine

2010-08-11T12:32:00.000-07:00

High Knob, West Virginia
Oil on Panel, 15 x 15"
SOLD

Rain Cloud Over Sargent Mountain
Painted at Acadia National Park
Oil on Panel, 12 x 16"
SOLD

2010-06-06T11:11:00.000-07:00

Acadian Coast
Acadia National Park, Maine
Watercolor on Paper, 12x16"
SOLD

View of Cadillac From Dorr Mountain
Acadia National Park, Maine
Watercolor on Paper, 16x20"
SOLD

Giant Slide Creek
Acadia National Park, Maine
Watercolor on Paper, 12x12"

Bass Harbor Marsh
Acadia National Park, Maine
Oil on Panel, 24x30"
SOLD

2010-03-25T10:22:00.000-07:00

Little River Dock, Maine
Oil on Panel, 30 x 24"
1st Place National Arts Program 2010, Maine

2010-01-05T07:26:00.000-08:00

Low Tide at Seawall Beach
Morse Mountain, Maine
20 x 24" 2010
Oil on Panel
SOLD

2009-12-18T18:46:00.000-08:00

North Fork of Red Creek
Monongahela National Forest, West Virginia
24x24" 2009
Oil on Panel
SOLD

North Fork Mountain
Monongahela National Forest, West Virigina
24x24" 2009
Oil on Panel

Dolly Sods Wilderness
Monongahela National Forest, West Virginia
24x24" 2009
Oil on Panel

2009-11-18T11:48:00.000-08:00

A White Lake, A Hungry Fox
Oil and Graphite on Gessoed Paper
2009, 28x45.5"

plein air watercolors

2009-11-18T11:43:00.000-08:00

Estuary at Dusk
Scarborough, Maine
Watercolor on Paper, December 2009, 7x10"
SOLD

Large Waves at Two Lights
Cape Elizabeth, Maine
Watercolor, December 2009, 12x16"
SOLD

A Mostly Gray Day
Cape Elizabeth, Maine
Watercolor on Paper, December 2009 12x16"
SOLD

Early Evening
Crescent Beach State Park- Cape Elizabeth, Maine
Watercolor on Paper, November 2009, 12x16"

2009-11-15T15:17:00.001-08:00

Study at Two Lights State Park - Cape Elizabeth, Maine
Watercolor on Paper, 2009, 7x10"
SOLD

Harbor View From Eastern Promenade - Portland, Maine
Watercolor on Paper, 2009, 7x10"
SOLD

2009-11-15T11:29:00.001-08:00

American Robin's Nest
Watercolor on Paper, 2009, 4x6"
SOLD

Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota
Watercolor on Paper, 2009, 4x6"
SOLD

2009-11-15T11:12:00.001-08:00

Oil

2009-04-07T15:13:00.000-07:00

From the Mountain (The Chilcotin Range, British Columbia)

42.5 x 92.5"
Oil on gessoed paper

Back in the summer of 2007, I spent nearly two months living/camping in the Chilcotin Range of British Columbia's coastal mountains. The area was about 400 miles north of Vancouver, and from this perspective one can see the valley that the Hamathko River rolls through before descending thousands of feet in elevation to the sea in a matter of 70 miles. Beyond the closest foothills of the mountains in the distance lay vast stretches of icefields, unnamed lakes, and ridges that hardly correlate to topographical maps.

Detail: tree and needles

Oil

2009-03-30T13:43:00.000-07:00

Bee-Beard Leaves Ohio
Oil on Canvas
54 x 72"

detail: man and honeybees

detail: indigo bunting

detail: corn snake

Works on Paper

2009-03-12T18:16:00.001-07:00

"Basecamp, British Columbia"
22x25"
Sumi Ink on Paper

Detail - Rocks of Niut

This drawing was made from an onsite sketch detailing one of my backcountry basecamps in the Chilcotin Mountains of British Columbia. Elevation is somewhere around 7500 ft, rising and rolling along between alpine-tundra and volcanic geology. Beyond the ridges you see in this drawing lie vast and slumbering stretches of ice fields. Up here, one may see every color imaginable in the mosses and lichens, and for every sweep of the careful eye, one can spot mule deer, pica, and grizzly bears. Of course, you don't need to look for the black flies.... they obviously find you here.

Works on Paper

2009-03-08T17:25:00.000-07:00

"Hymnal"
Graphite, Gouache, and Print
20x36"

The Majestic Death

2007-10-30T19:03:00.000-07:00

"The Majestic Death"
gouache and ink
36x22"

Description coming soon... server not working well right now...

Red-Winged Blackbirds

2007-10-23T15:36:00.001-07:00

Red-Winged Blackbird Flock

print, 32x25" edition of 3

This piece is meant to investigate the congregational pattern of red-winged blackbirds, a sight that has occured before me since my youth on through to several weeks ago, from northern Wisconsin, to the Chesapeake Bay, and even here, in northeastern Ohio. From a point of drawing, this is in line with my effort to draw what appear to be "impossibilites" in the surface of the paper.

Xante Prints

2007-10-23T14:01:00.000-07:00

For those unfamiliar with the process of xante printing: it follows almost the exact technique as lithography, and in many ways is simply an alternative method for etching into limestone (which, originating in a now empty quarry in Bavaria, has a limited existence). Rather than the stone, xante printing uses a plastic sheet and commercial inks (even ball-point pens and sharpies work!) to retain the image. Then, same litho-principle: water and oil repel each other, so keep the ink coming and the plate wet.

Images (note: all are editions of 10) 1) The Pileated Woodpecker, and my writing about viewing it's thumping flight overhead in the West Woods (Geauga County) where I left the trail to pass an abandoned beaver lodge, 2) The Rookery, also located in Geauga County; pretty wetlands, and 3) Walrus Study, simply.

Works on Paper

2007-04-17T12:51:00.000-07:00

Detail of Osprey Nest

Mid-Flight Osprey on the Upper-Middle Patuxent River
gouache and ink, 36 x 24"

Species Included: Osprey and osprey chicks (Pandion haliaetus), yellow-billed cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus), red-winged blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus), raccoon (Procyon lotor), common corn snake (Elaphe guttata guttata), channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus).

I spent a good portion of August 2006 kayaking along different sections of the Patuxent River in Maryland, specifically around the Jug Bay region near Upper Marlboro. It's a beautiful area, and the osprey are always present and hovering over you, waiting for a meal to catch. I remember paddling up a smaller channel that came to a dead end at a beaver's dam. It was in this offshoot of the Patuxent where I drew most of my osprey studies, as there were several nesting sites in the area. Perhaps the greatest models I had were a parent osprey and a juvenile - I watched the adult teaching the young one fishing lessons (hovering, swooping in, skimming the water with talons extended), and from this was able to witness not only the many views of the birds in natural accordance, but was also able to witness a moment that I felt priveleged to be in the presence of.

2007-04-17T11:15:00.000-07:00

Herring Gulls of Lake Erie
digital print, 42 x 26"

This is the first installment of an ongoing series addressing where the herring gulls of Cleveland, Ohio (along Lake Erie) congregate in relation to the environmental status of such areas. This first piece was somewhat of a trial for arranging the drawings in a large flock. The pieces to come will follow the flock descending on different locations. The initial thought in this project was to think about seagulls standing in as consumers rather than the romanticized "land-ho" type of idea due to the oppurtunistic feeding habits of gulls like these essentially following humans to some of the more filthy places of urban and suburban communities, and essentially at centers of commerce (landfills, ports, industrial parks, and... it's almost always true.... to strip malls that lodge together fast food chains, wal-marts, and targets).

Works on Paper

2007-04-17T11:03:00.000-07:00

Oh, Maryland! The Old Line State
walnut ink on paper, 36 x 18"

Works on Paper

2007-04-17T09:04:00.001-07:00

The American Crocodile and Other Tragedies of the Florida Everglades
gouache and ink 36 x 22"

Included Species: American Crocodile, juvenile and mature (Crocodylus acutus), Florida kingsnake (Lampropeltis getula floridana), eastern coral snake (Micrurus fulvius fulvius), belted kingfisher (Ceryle alycon), wood stork (Mycteria americana), Carolina parakeet (Conuropsis carolinensis)(extinct), black-striped mullet (Mugil cephalus), Berger's fiddler crab, and red mangroves (Rhizophora mangle).