Mark smiling in a blue shirt, brushes in hand, beside his easel in a sunflower field; the painting of the field is on the easel

About · Mark James Lucas, oil painter

What’s up, people of the Earth?

For twelve years I worked in advertising at agencies across Canada, designing websites and, in time, working as an art director. In 2014 I left to paint: in oil, outside and from life, each painting finished in a single sitting in front of the place. In the winter of 2019 I began filming those sessions, so most of what follows you can hear in my own words.

Hear me say it, Episode 09 · 0:08 Three ways to take one home

2014
I left advertising to paint full time
326
paintings pinned where I painted them
4 winters
in a van, from Algonquin to Cabo
7 years
living at Covert Farms, Oliver, BC

In my own words

What I said, and what it’s about.

Mark in a sunflower field holding a small square viewfinder up to the sky, the hills behind him — Framing it up with a viewfinder. Photo: Hero Images

The desk

“…it taught me things about composition, colour, business, relationships, communication that I never would have had otherwise.”

On camera at Cerritos, Baja (raw footage, not in an episode)

I worked in advertising, from designer to art director, at agencies across Canada. Sitting in an office, I always felt there was a part of life I was missing out on. In 2014 I left to paint full time.

I still design, for my own studio, NEW Design Co. It built this site.

One sitting, twice in a day

On 22 February 2019 I painted the arch at Land’s End in the morning and the waves off Camino Cabo Este until sunset. Each one was started and finished on site, in one sitting.

“It’s this big, but I’m going to blow it up to this big.”

Episode 09 · 0:35

Arch at Cabo, the oil sketch: the arches at Land’s End lit gold above a deep blue sea

11:30 am

“…It is 11:30. I think this one was about an hour and a half.”

From the raw footage at Land’s End

Arch at Cabo, 12 × 9 in. Sold.

Prints from US$59 On the map

Waves Crashing off Camino Cabo Este, the oil sketch: white water over dark rocks in a turquoise sea

4:30 pm

“It’s about 4:30. There’s about three hours of sun left, if that.”

Episode 10 · 0:43

Waves Crashing off Camino Cabo Este, 12 × 9 in. US$465, available.

The original, US$465 On the map

The whole day is on film

Mark in a red plaid jacket and toque sitting against a rock, holding Charlie, a black dog — Algonquin Park, fall 2017, with Charlie. Photo: Geoff Butler

Jayna, Charlie and the van

“…this area has quite a significance for us, because this is where we got our dog Charlie from.”

Episode 04 · 0:11Playa Hawaii, Baja, 3 February 2019

For seven years home was Covert Farms, the organic farm in Oliver. When the farm went quiet for winter, my partner Jayna and I went south in the van. On the way back north that first winter, we stopped at a beach called Playa Hawaii. That’s where we got Charlie. Some of the road photos on this site are Jayna’s.

All 326 paintings on the map The four winters, in my words

Mark at his easel on the sand among dark rocks and turquoise water near San José del Cabo — The beach with no name, near San José del Cabo, 23 February 2019

The white I make

“Now this is the stuff that’s worth a lot to me: homemade flake white paint.”

Episode 11 · 0:40

A couple of years in I stopped using titanium white and started making flake white by the stack process. Every colour in a painting comes from eight tubes and the white I make. No black.

I make my own floater frames, too. The panels go out varnished, wrapped and boxed from Oliver.

How I paint, step by step

Other people’s cameras

When somebody else was looking.

Western Living came by the peach orchard at Covert. Between the winters the paintings went up on walls at home: the wood walls at Covert Farms, where I sold a few from the first show, and in Penticton, the Penticton Art Gallery, the Martin Gallery and Lloyd’s Gallery. Nothing sold at Lloyd’s; that’s part of it too.