Mark Haworth describes his paintings as “detailed impressionism. My main thing is portraying light—especially that magic time in the late afternoon. Light has an emotion to it, the way it falls on the landscape.”
Haworth calls Texas home. He grew up in Houston, lived in Fredericksburg in the middle of Texas Hill Country for 33 years and now lives in nearby Austin. But, it is the geography and light of the wilderness of Big Bend that really attracts him. “I love the light up there,” he says.
The Surveyor, oil, 24 x 36”
Big Bend Unplugged, an exhibition of his most recent work, will be shown at InSight Gallery in Fredericksburg, April 1 through 22.
Driving his sister’s car back from California in 1981 he saw a sign to Big Bend. He decided to make a brief detour and ended up staying for two weeks. His partner, Victoria, owns a section (1 square mile) in Lajitas, at the edge of the national park. She had purchased one of his paintings of the area because it depicted Big Bend as she saw it, but she was also curious that it looked as if it had been painted on her land. The two were introduced at the gallery and the rest, as they say, is history.
Desert Oasis, oil, 40 x 30”
Big Horn Country, oil, 36 x 50”
They explore the far reaches of Big Bend with their cameras and Haworth with minimal portable painting materials to make visual notes of the forms, color and light. They hike several miles off the beaten path to where, they joke, “no other Big Bend artists have gone before.”
In The Surveyor, a coyote overlooks his domain, unaware that the artist is studying the scene and its subtleties of light and color. The rocks and plants in the cool foreground are picked out by the warm color of the sunlight, and a warm streak of color cuts across the middle of the canvas before the landscape recedes into the distance as he softens the shapes and cools his palette—until a spectrum of light appears in the sky beyond the farthest mountains.
Haworth often puts animals in his paintings but not in the manner of a wildlife painter. They blend in as part of their environment. In Desert Oasis, three blue quail blend into the shadows. In Big Horn Country, barely visible big horns give a sense of scale to the massive rock face.
Mark Haworth on location in the desert.
One of the painters Haworth admires is George Inness, who wrote, “The purpose of the painter is simply to reproduce in other minds the impression which a scene has made upon him. A work of art does not appeal to the intellect. It does not appeal to the moral sense. Its aim is not to instruct, not to edify, but to awaken an emotion.” —
Upcoming Show
Up to 15 works
April 1-22, 2022
InSight Gallery
214 W. Main Street, Fredericksburg, TX 78624
(830) 997-9920, www.insightgallery.com
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