Mark Knudsen

Mark Knudsen resides in Utah where he creates paintings of Utah landscapes.

Mark said, “It is difficult to resist the power of the Western landscape. I’m in the middle of it, and I don’t try.”

“The desert country of the American West is too large, too wild, too harsh, and too gorgeous to be encompassed by the framed scenes of the traditional landscape. Our inherited aesthetic defines beauty in landscape as green and aerable land or grand, breathtaking places. I feel the need to expand that definition.”

“I want to portray the desert as it is right now, to dispense with the limitations of the framed scene, to quietly point out the beautify of places that are harsh and forbidding and to go beyond the sentimentality that often defines our images of the West.”

“The scale of many of my pieces – an extreme horizontal two feet by seven or eight feet – is a compositional strategy to capture the vastness of these places, and has attracted some attention locally from institutional and private collectors.”

“If the number of European and East Coast visitors to the desert country of the West is an indication, there is significant interest in this unique American setting. My own experience has taught me that many people discover they are interested in an approach to the Western landscape that stays clear of excess.”

“I consider myself a modern painter engaged in the exploration, the investigation, the challenge of the search for meaning that our time and place present us. The undeniable, unquantifiable connection between us and our world is my subject.”

Resumé

• University of Utah Fine Art

• 1970 - Art Department , Salt Lake Tribune, Salt Lake City, Utah

• 1989 – 2001 Head of Design for Features, Salt Lake Tribune, Salt Lake City, Utah

• Writer, Environmental, Arts and Humor, Salt Lake Tribune, Salt Lake City, Utah

• 2004 Retirement, pursue fulltime career as a painter

• Graphic Design and Illustration, Set Design - Repertory Dance Theater

• Illustration: Cartooning, Wildlife Illustration, Story Illustration (painterly & digital illustrations) - National Lampoon Publication

• Logo Design, “Memorial Logo”, Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network, Great Salt Lake, Utah

• Design Consultant, Division of Wildlife Services, State of Utah

• Instructor, SaltLake Art Center , “Open Classroom Program” Youth Program

• Writer and Illustrator with Tim Kelly & Neil Passey, “ Utah - Gateway to Nevada ” Publication

Exhibitions

• 2006 Exhibitor, “C.M. Russell Auction” Great Falls , Montana

• 2006, Iron Horse Gallery, Park City, Utah

• 2006, One Man Show, P. Moore Gallery, Salt Lake City, Utah

• 2005, One Man Show, Johns’ Western Gallery, California

• 2005, One Man Show, Phillips Gallery, Salt Lake City, Utah

• 2003, 2004, 2005, One Man Show, Sanders Rare Books, Salt Lake City, Utah

• Exhibitor, Utah Biennial, Salt Lake City, Utah

• 1994 – Present - Exhibiting Paintings & Sculpture

Represented in:

Utah , California and Montana

Collections:

Corporate, Public Organizations and Private Collectors