MARK KERCKHOFF

Nature is never static.  You can’t stick her in a box nor define her with set boundaries.  Virtually incomprehensible, you can only take in so much at a time.  Of the Grand Canyon, John Muir said, “It seems a gigantic statement, even for Nature to make.”

Is this why we tend a few native plants in little plots outside the front door?  Or supply a bird feeder with fresh seed every day?  Or carry a camera on nature hike?  Maybe some of us want Nature around all the time, even when we are physically separated.  It must be that in our homes and offices, we need the next best thing to a quiet morning in the desert or a sunset walk on the beach.  So we keep a few rocks and twigs on our desk, a pinecone, a “Nature” calendar, some dried flowers.  We bring little scraps into our world in order to stay connected.

This desire is universal and timeless.  The Japanese art form of “bonsai” succeeds in getting all the grandeur of an ancient tree or forest to fit into a little pot on its own special stand.  If you sit there just a few feet away, viewing and contemplating, you will find yourself transported to a full-scale forest, or lying under a giant pine on some distant mountain.  Nature in miniature can be good for us.

The classic California art form of outdoor “landscape painting” (en plein air) is very similar to “bonsai.” Instead of a plant in a clay pot on a bench, the painting is explained in the context of a beautiful frame on the wall.  In each case, Nature fits inside.  In a very real sense, both subjects are dealing with all things living.  Like bonsai, plein air painting is practiced well by only a select few, and in each case we call them “masters.”  Their art is never static.

Mark Kerckhoff paints nature and creates beauty in the manner of a master.  His art, highly regarded in southern California for nearly thirty years, is at once inspired and inspirational.  The time he spends out doors is transferred from his eye, to his heart, to hand, to brush, to canvas; then conveyed to the eye of the beholder… and to their heart.  Incredibly, through the use of color, light, composition, and depth, Mark’s paintings carry the viewer to the time and place of the piece, or even to a different time and place that only the viewer can know.  Like the scenes depicted, Mark’s paintings are fresh and new at each encounter; the kind of art you can live with and relate with every day, definitely not static, very much alive.

Kerckhoff’s work is entirely genuine, authentic, and completely true to the plein air tradition.  Needless to say, at the technical level, he is highly respected among many fine artists and collectors.  But Mark’s work is most sought after at levels far deeper than style and technique.  Nature in miniature, as expressed at the hands of a master, “lives” with you.  An original Kerckhoff, unlike the stray rock or feather on your desk, embodies more than a mere remnant or snapshot of a time and place in nature.  An original Kerckhoff bares the personality, the essence, the changing moods, and the significance of natural California.  And nature is never static.

--Mike Evans, Tree of Life Nursery