After a decade as an illustrator in Commercial Art, I made the decision to pursue a career in fine art. Much of what I have focused on the past 7 years has been portraiture and landscape painting.
‘Recently, I have ventured into new creative territory as a painter and I’m having some serious fun!  It started out with a desire to simplify detail and apply more vibrant colors to my paintings. Through that experiment, I ended up with two varied sized, and somewhat round objects, and put a dot inside them.  I then sent these two separate shapes on a adventure of discovery. I call them Peep and Pop.  They have no features or limbs, yet they evoke familiar human characteristics, such as excitement, friendship, loyalty, wonder and most of all curiosity.
As I developed these paintings, my goal was to focus the hearts and minds of my viewers on something less stressful, and more innocent than the familiar information about how bad the world is out there.  This series of paintings won’t solve any of the challenges we face today, but for a brief moment they just might give you a much deserved emotional break. I hope they serve as a reminder there is still goodness and beauty to be found for those who are willing to look.  I find it all around me. I hope you find it too.

Mark Walter, artist