Dallas artist Mark Whitmarsh has been painting professionally for over three decades. He was born and raised in Lakewood, Colorado, near the foothills of the beautiful Rocky Mountains, where backpacking and ski racing were his favorite outdoor activities during his early years.Art was always very important to Mark from grade school through high school. He showed in galleries during his teenage years, winning an award in the National Watercolor Society exhibit at the age of 18. Mark studied at the University of Wyoming and the Rocky Mountain School of Art and Design. During this five-year period, he had the opportunity to study with Mark Dickson, the great abstract landscape painter from Denver. This was a pivotal period for the artist, and during this time, he gravitated towards a more reductionist attitude toward painting landscapes. Strongly influenced by the Abstract Expressionism movement throughout the 1990s and into the turn of the century, Mark developed a freely expressive mode of creativity.Mark's work has been exhibited throughout the Southwest, including New Mexico, Colorado, Texas and Oklahoma. He has had many solo shows at Southwest Gallery in Dallas, Texas. He has also participated in many group shows throughout the U.S., including New York, San Francisco and Chicago. His paintings hang in many public and private collections, including Fountain Place in downtown Dallas, and Lincoln Plaza in North Dallas.