Mark Granlund

Artist Statement

LANDSCAPES

Granlund's landscape painting flows from his sustained love of, and respect for, the geography and ecology of the North. Seeing Nature as a whole system requires engaging all senses to capture and express the authenticity of a complex environment. In his paintings, Mark builds detail, texture and layers using washes, fields of color, impasto strokes, glazing and scumbling, to bring light, textures and motion to the canvas. As the viewer pauses before the landscape on canvas, a perceptive eye finds another layer, another moment.

Granlund's abiding love of lakes and woods is rooted in his childhood. His paintings pass on his delight in play and discovery, fostered early in his life while living in Northern New Jersey on a wooded acre lot. Because of his fondness for lakes, Mark's father chose family recreation sites near Seven Lakes in southern New York State, rather than heading East, to the Jersey Shore. His father's fondness for lakes came from his parents who immigrated from Finland to America, settling in Northern Minnesota. A passion for trees and lakes was further reinforced during annual visits with his maternal Grandparents, who always lived on lakes in Central and Northern Minnesota. His family's history with Northern landscapes is a strong inspiration for Mark's detail-infused landscape paintings.

STILL LIFES

As Granlund creates a Still Life, he perceptively links associations, objects, and thoughts. He deconstructs the traditional genre by making his internal monologue more important than the elements of the art form. Each object is more than an opportunity to explore form, color and light. Whether Granlund is exploring his diet, what it is to be American, Cezanne's legacy, or contemporary culture, he is deftly painting a twist of associations.