Mark Kerckhoff
Born 1959, Covina, California
Mark Kerckhoff, a sixth-generation Californian, developed his love of art and landscape painting by admiring his family’s collection of antique California paintings while growing up. The sweeping coastlines and canyons of his youth still run through many of his paintings.
He is equally drawn to the otherworldly stretches of desert beyond the Coachella Valley, particularly the landscape along the Borrego–Salton Seaway, where he enjoys camping and painting what he calls “the best arroyos in the low desert for color and design.”
The common denominator in his work is tradition. The artists who inspire him include Ann Lofquist, Hans Thoma, Hermann Herzog, Maynard Dixon, Thomas Moran, Peter Loftus, and countless others—especially the German Romantics.
Jean Stern, Director Emeritus of the Irvine Museum at the University of California, Irvine, has noted that Mark’s paintings “show his superb ability to draw, his solidity of form and perspective, and most of all his unfailing facility with color. His paintings are always characterized by a unique and convincing sense of outdoor light, and like few other artists, he succeeds at producing the true effect of the fluidity of natural light.”
Mark also teaches plein air classes and gives demonstrations, sharing his knowledge with painters seeking to advance their skills.