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September Issue 2003
Gallery 2 in Columbia, SC, Features Pet Portraits by Mark Durham
Gallery 2 in Columbia,
SC, will present the exhibition, Pop Art Pet Portraits,
by zany artist Mark Durham through Sept. 28, 2003.
Love your lab? Wild about your Weimaraner? Think your tabby is tops? So do lots of folks, including Charlotte, NC, pop artist Mark Durham. Durham's painting career started on a whim when he did a portrait of his own cat, Spooner Lee. Fat and wide-eyed, Spooner Lee jumped off the canvas with swirls of color, a flashy tiara and a string of blue pearls around her neck.
"I wanted to infuse my painting with Spooner Lee's personality," Durham said. "She's such a princess, so I gave her the crown and the necklace. People really responded to that portrait and one thing lead to another." Durham tries to capture the happy natures, quizzical looks and unapologetic adoration in the eyes of his client's pets. Durham parodies the animals by adding outrageous details. "I did a dachshund and he looked like Winston Churchill, so I put a big cigar in his mouth and accentuated all his wrinkles and roundness."
For years, people have been taking their pooches and pussy cats to photography studios for shots with Santa or to have calendars made in a cute costume for each month of the year. It's not surprising that high-end, serious pet art would find a niche too. A quick search of the Web produces pet parody art in the style of famous painters depicting everything from a cut-up geometric Picasso beagle to a tabby frozen in Edvard Munch's Scream. Durham's style has been described as a cross between Van Gogh and Peter Max.
Durham, 37, had early exposure to art. His mother was an art teacher and his grandfather owned a gallery in Atlanta, GA. Durham graduated from theUniversity of Georgia in journalism with a minor in art, but he feels as if he is a self-taught artist.
"I have spent the last 14 years trying to unlearn what they taught me in art school," Durham said. "I admire the old masters work, El Greco being one of my favorites. But I don't see much of a reason to paint a portrait in a traditional vein since you can take a photograph with a lot less effort."
Durham never uses an easel, but rather lays canvases flat on the floor of his 800 square foot garage studio. Cats slink in the small spaces between the artwork on a color-spattered floor. Durham can work on up to 20 paintings at a time, moving between them, brush in hand, a method he says keeps his work fresh. "I use large brushes and am incredibly sloppy. I often attack a canvas with color. I'm paranoid of the white canvas and aggressively slop paint on it with the energy of a two-year-old. I'm always excited about my next painting and have never experienced the creative block that many artists speak of."
Durham will do portraits of people, (he painted his own grandmother in a green coonskin cap), but he prefers to stick to animals. "It's fun. People are passionate about their pets. I've done rabbits, parrots and even a chicken. But dogs are my favorite because of their funny expressions - eyes wide open and tongue sticking out - and their big goofy features." Durham says the strangest thing he has even been asked to do was mix the ashes of a couple of cats in with his acrylic paint. The artist says he usually tries to accommodate requests, "If they're not too crazy."
Durham's pup art has been catching on and he gets most of his commissions by word of mouth. Locals bring their pets to his studio to be photographed and Durham posts his shots up on a wall where the faces of his subjects are always accessible as he moves from one canvas to another. Durham has clients all over the country and will soon be represented by galleries in California and New Orleans, as well as, Gallery 2 in Columbia. Durham's acrylic and oils are most often on canvas, but sometimes he uses found objects like old doors. His work ranges from 16" x 20" up to 42" x 60" (larger works can take up to a month to create) and sells from $450-$2,000. Gallery 2 will show more than two dozen of Durham's original pet portraits in all sizes. Giclee prints will also be available for sale.
For further information check our SC Commercial
Gallery listings, call the gallery at 803/771-6123 or e-mail at
(Gallerytwo@aol.com).
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