Featured Artist Mark Waller

Australian painter Mark Waller’s portfolio conveys the transformative power of nature and our place in the world. View more of his work by visiting his website.

 

 

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been intrigued and uplifted by simple, natural experiences. I would lose myself for hours in the bush behind my house looking at nature, and this spilled over into school. I used to sit and draw pictures of waves instead of doing schoolwork. It was inevitable that I started painting.

 

 

Still to this day, some forty-five years later, I am utterly mesmerized and curious about our planet and its magic. For me, the experience of painting, while challenging at times, has inspired a philosophy that has helped me through some of the tougher times life has thrown at me.

 

 

I truly believe that if we all took more time to sit in nature, and observe what at first seems to be so simple, we would discover that it is actually incredibly nuanced, layered, and connected. We are not separate from this planet.

 

 

Ultimately, that’s what my paintings are about. A whole painting can emerge because I like the way the light bounces off the sand onto the underside of a branch. Or that gold film of light across the top of a cloud—often everything else around it is just context.

 

 

These are simple, glorious, transformative opportunities to just be.

 

 

It seems to me, paradoxically, that really focusing on some of these simple moments—the miracle of our natural world—is actually incredibly expansive. It can give us an altered perspective and a chance to step outside of problems that seem insurmountable.

 

 

I was faced with a potentially terminal prognosis a few years ago. Being able to sit in nature and enjoy the “small things” softened the trauma of the experience, and in some ways made it actually beautiful. My illness reconnected me to my painting and my painting processes in a way I couldn’t have imagined. I have discovered the truth about connection and now my pictures are almost reverent celebrations of life.

 

 

I primarily paint with acrylics, and love the immediacy and vibrancy of this medium. Despite the realism and detail in my paintings, I’m actually quite vigorous with the application. I’m spontaneous and impulsive, often throwing all my carefully laid plans out the window.

 

 

In the real world, there is so much light bouncing around, often unexpectedly. I use that as a tool to create as much depth and luminosity as I can. Most of my paintings have impasto gel brushed over each important layer. Then glazes and added colours are used over those layers. I like to let the light in the painting bounce back through layers of thin colour to the viewer’s eye. To me, the surface is almost as important as the original image. Looking back into the depths of the painting through all those layers is exciting.

 

 

I’m incredibly passionate about sharing my worldly (and painting) discoveries with others. To this end, I’ve set up a tutorial website with hundreds of pages of free information. It focuses solely on tips, techniques and tutorials to help improve my followers’ painting processes. As an added bonus, my audience will get to experience my dress sense, scruffy head and wonderful sense of humor. Cheers!

 

Artist Mark Waller invites you to follow him on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest, and his Painting Tutorial Website.

 

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