Mark Stanford oil painting of a coastal Florida scene with large Spanish Galleon ship, boat ashore, cloudy sunset sky, and large palm tree. Signed lower right. Measures 16" x 12" on artist panel and 19.5" x 15.5" w/ frame. About the artist: Mark Stanford started school on the East Coast of Florida in the mid 1960’s. He remembers how Florida used to look before all the construction and development. The Indian River used to be clean and clear and teaming with life. Mark became a goldsmith in Vero Beach in 1981. He apprenticed under a German master goldsmith, Robert Dear. During that time, he met and married the love of his life, Jennifer. Later he graduated with honors from Toccoa Falls College in Georgia. He became a case manager in Florida, working to help children and families in crisis. It was during that time that Mark began to paint. He missed using his creative talents and found painting to be a way to attend to this creative desire. Mark started out painting around 2004 with a palette knife in oils. He was introduced to the Highwaymen art a couple of years prior and then A.E. Backus paintings. Mark really loved A.E. Backus oils, especially the old palette knife works of art. Backus painted slowly and in detail. While Mark could not afford paintings by A.E. Backus, his initial intent with painting was to try to paint like Backus’ early works with a palette knife and paint Florida how it used to be from Mark’s childhood memories for his own home. Eventually, people wanted to buy the paintings he had hung in his home. He started painting plein air works in the current Florida landscapes and opened his palette to other Southeastern landscapes and started selling them on e-Bay. He sold many paintings on e-Bay all over the country small and large. Some collectors bought as many as 30 paintings, filling their homes with his oils. In 2011, Mark started lessons with Ahmed Eltemtamy, a listed Florida landscape artist, which elevated his ability to sell his paintings. In 2012, AskArt.com listed Mark on their artist’s listing website. In 2016, Mark won the Annual Judge’s Choice Award with the Sebastian Art Club art show. Mark applied for and was invited to 22 of 24 juried art shows in Florida and South Carolina for the fall of 2016 and spring of 2017. He sold a lot of paintings, selling out in some shows and having to paint night and day between shows to have enough for the upcoming shows. By the fall of 2017, he limited shows to be in and applied to 18 juried shows for the fall of 2017 and spring of 2018. Painting sales increased and Mark won 1st Place in the painting category at the Plantation Art Show in South Florida. Mark’s desire for his art these days is to paint high quality Florida landscape oil paintings. He takes his time and paints with detail and colors, surprise colors not expected, and light versus dark for dramatic effect. Mark still prefers to paint with a palette knife, though he often paints with brush as some of his clients prefer that type of painting. He almost always uses thick paint for a tactile dimension and interesting effect. Mark always signs his artwork with a broken leg M and his last name. Initially, signing his name was the hardest part of the painting due to Mark’s dyslexia. While he became proficient in reading, his hand writing is atrocious and he always struggles with hand writing. By 2012, Mark began dating all his paintings (some dates are hidden under the frames) and eventually added a Fish under his signature. The fish represents him being a follower of Christ, in whom Mark gives all the credit for his ability to paint.