Strokes Of The Season With Painter Mark Marino: “It’s all light and shape and color and texture.”

Tucked away at the foot of the Grand Mesa, the same Cedaredge apple orchard that grows the main ingredient in Snow Capped Cider is also home to painter Mark Marino and his wife, JoAnne. From the itsy-bitsy buds of spring to the bold blossoms of summer to the abundant apples of fall and the barren branches of winter, the apple trees are always an indicator of change.

“It’s beautiful,” Marino says, of the orchard. “It’s the perfect place.” More than an idyllic living space, the property is also home to Marino’s studio, where his iconic plein air paintings that have found homes in everything from galleries to calendars come to fruition.

For Marino, who grew up in Boulder and began drawing at the age of five, the outdoors have been a long-time subject of his art. From his education at the University of Northern Colorado to mentorships and apprenticeships with artists in Idaho and Wyoming, the magnificence of the western landscape is threaded through Marino’s body of work.

“Autumn Cottonwood Study” North of Jackson, WY. Oil. 12x16.

Although Marino’s painting has taken him to many a breathtaking location, he admits that the colors, shapes and values found in the Colorado National Monument remain some of his favorite to paint.

From wildlife to scenery to portraiture, much of Marino’s paintings aim to capture life outdoors in the glory that it exudes by simply existing. “I just paint what I see; I paint my life and my life experience,” explains Marino.

Plein air painting takes place chiefly in situ, or at the locale that is being painted. This painting style lends itself to the portrayal of panoramic landscapes and is often at the whim of light patterns and the mercurial weather for which Colorado is notorious. Representing these shifts in oil paint takes a keen eye and a quick hand. Thankfully, Marino has both.

“It’s all light and shape and color and texture,” Marino explains, describing his method. “It’s about how to capture those finer shapes and values. There’s this process that goes on in the background — thousands and thousands of little decisions.”

These thousands of decisions make for intricate details that ultimately form the richly detailed paintings that appear on Marino’s canvases.

On a broader scale of change, the seasons often shape not just a landscape, but Marino’s palette. “In the fall, you have a hazy yellow tinge; summer has these bright lights and deep, cool shadows, while spring has bright shades of green and light blues, and winter has yellows and blues and of course white,” Marino explains.

Marino begins to lean towards fall as his painting season of choice, gravitating towards the warmth of both its weather and its colors, but ultimately recants. “All of the seasons. I love them all,” he laughs.

Despite painting for many years and witnessing the same cycles and patterns, there are always elements of surprise that find their way into Marino’s paintings. “There are always ways in which elements can be portrayed,” Marino shares, “it can be an unexpected color combination or the way the paint tools allow for texture to be applied. Whatever it is that will give it a more convincing look.”

Although the painters he has studied under and the works he is influenced by play a significant role in shaping his style of painting, Marino is ultimately beholden to the purity and integrity of capturing a subject, not the eye of the consumer. “I paint the way I paint,” he emphasizes.

The landscape is shifting in the art world, too. Many galleries closed during COVID-19, and there were no in-person art shows or competitions. “It hurt everybody, artists included,” shares Marino. Art sales have also gradually shifted online, but, as Marino points out, digital pictures and screens, despite their high-resolution features, are still unable to do something as intricate as an oil painting justice.

Thankfully, galleries are reopening, and the Western Slope continues to act as a welcoming home for artists, with many local galleries and one of just a few art foundries (studios for bronze sculpture casting) in Colorado.

Like the onward march of time through the seasons, Marino is always looking forward and plans to keep painting “probably forever.” Marino is continually growing his body of work and even plans to expand into new media forms, beginning with a commission for a bronze sculpture. Although no plans are set in stone (or bronze), Marino is meeting the future with an open mind. “We’ll see where it goes,” he says.

Originally published in the Fall 2021 issue of Spoke+Blossom