Mark Kohler – 2020 Brinton 101

Mark Kohler is an award-winning watercolorist; the recipient of the Cowboy Artists of America Founders Award and the Phippen Museum Foundation Award.  “I want to document the independent spirit, pride, and vision of the American West. We have a rich and unique history, and it is worthy of preservation.”

Mark’s work is in private and corporate collections across our nation, and his collectors can be found in countries throughout the world.  He has been featured in Southwest Art, Western Art Collector, Art of the West, Western Art Collector, Western Horseman, Art & Architecture, and various other publications.  He has self-published two coffee-table books, titled Mark Kohler: Working Cowboys, and Mark Kohler: Going West. His work has also illustrated a cowboy cookbook, titled Cow Country Cooking: Recipes and Tales from Northern Arizona’s Historic Ranches, written by Kathy McCraine, and which was awarded the Will Rogers 2011 Medallion Award for “Best Cookbook”. Most recently, Mark’s work was featured in Horses in the American West, a book published by Texas A&M University Press and authored by Dr. Heidi Brady and Dr. Scott White.

Mark has a growing clientele seeking his commissioned work. He is gaining a reputation for creating timeless family memories through his classic portraits, both in oil and watercolor. After 25 years as a professional artist, he continues to grow in his passion for creating art that touches the human soul and spirit

“I use the medium of Watercolor to portray contemporary images of the American West.  Working from photographs I have taken myself, I paint on a rough, hand-made paper.  I use big, broad color washes, using mostly wet-into-wet techniques.  I then tighten up the forms using dry brush to complete the details.  By employing the bold use of color and painting intricate details of my subjects, I strive to capture the heart and soul of my subject, and elicit an emotional response from the viewer. With my oil portraits, I want to capture a timeless, painterly portrayal of my subjects in a classical form. I choose to work in a layered fashion, bringing a level of realism to the painting.” Mark Kohler