Mark Brennan is a landscape painter and “nature recordist” who lives in Whitehill, Nova Scotia. He travels into the Canadian wilderness and makes paintings that express his emotional response to the experience.
He says, “I see the landscape as something pure, containing age old rhythms and patterns, and with each painting I seek this ebb and flow of nature that holds us all together, to form our connection to all things wild. I want to light up the eyes of Canadians, to awaken them to this wonderful land, to bring the wilderness home.”
I first became aware of Mark’s work a few years ago when I was lucky enough to spend two days on the jury for selecting art to be purchased by the Nova Scotia Art Bank. We chose one of his paintings, and since then I’ve seen some of his work at the Argyle Gallery in Halifax and on his website. Just recently I learned that he also makes recordings of the sounds of the wilderness. You can go to his other website, wildearthvoices.org, to hear a dawn chorus in the boreal forest, a thunder storm, or coyotes howling.
Here are two of Mark’s paintings. The first, Winter, Whitehill Woods, Nova Scotia, illustrates the season that is just about ending. The second, April Shoreline, Rocky Lake is what we have to look forward to.
Winter, Whitehill Woods, Nova Scotia
April Shoreline, Rocky Lake
