Since childhood, I’ve been strongly influenced in nearly every aspect of my life by the landscape that I lived near or spent time in. It has always affected who I am, providing me with both active recreation and solitude for thought, inspiration for my art but most of all it has enriched my soul. Early in my explorations as a visual thinker, my focus was on the living things in the natural world, primarily birds, and the beauty that I found in them and their lives. As time has passed, my focus has widened to include the environment surrounding them. While I’m not preaching a political position by what I paint, I am concerned about its condition, and do want the viewers of my art to see my appreciation for its significance. I am drawn to paint Nature to show my love for the natural world in all of its splendor, grandeur, and seemingly insignificant quiet places, all essential for our own survival as a species. I hope to express my love for the landscape to the viewer of my paintings so that they might also see the significance of it, of that special quality that they may have otherwise overlooked, and realize its essential value to us all. Having grown up in a military family, Marc’s youth was spent on the move. He was born in Oxnard, California and spent some of his early school years there. But his geographical resume soon included Alaska, Florida, Arkansas, Nebraska, South Dakota and Norway. After his father’s retirement from the Air Force, Marc’s family settled in the small northern California community of Loomis. Marc began college as a biology major, but soon applied to and was accepted into Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, majoring in illustration. After Art Center and a brief stint as a staff illustrator in Sacramento, California, Marc moved to Minnesota where he lived for 33 years while raising a family and pursuing his art. He currently lives near Savannah, GA on Tybee Island with his partner and painter, Dottie T. Leatherwood and their two dogs. Marc has shown his work in galleries and museums nationally and internationally since the early 1980’s. He is a Master Signature Member of The Oil Painters of America (O.P.A.M.)