Mark W. Romanowitz

I grew up in a very artisticly inclined family. My Dad was a prominent regional Architect and my Mom was a school teacher who always had some drawing or clay sculpture or other craft in work. Because of this influence I started my art career at a very early age. My initial artistic tendencies were predominantly abstract although cubist and surrealist influences were clearly evident in my work at that time. Unfortunately some of my first efforts were met with stern opposition from my parents followed by a lengthy session of scrubbing walls with soap and water to remove my work. Undaunted by this early setback I did decide however to confine my efforts to media more suitable to the rest of my family.

In public school and in college I took a number of art classes including life drawing. During my stint in the US Navy after college, I gained some measure of notariety by embellishing photographs of my squadron's Commanding Officer, Executive Officer and Maintenance Officer making them look like outlaw wanted posters from the Old West. Granted this was for a squadron sponsored function. After the Navy, while trying to provide for my family I got back into art by doing line drawings of airplanes for my sons to color. Soon I was drawing portraits of my son's Beanie Babies, and favorite animals and birds. After growing rather frustrated while trying to render spray with graphite pencil around the flukes of a Pacific White Sided Dolphin for one of my sons I stumbled upon an oil painting set at a nearby art supply store...

"And it was then that the Muse of Painting came to my rescue -- out of charity and out of chivalry, because after all she had nothing to do with me -- and said, 'Are these toys any good to you? They amuse some people.'"¹

So I purchased and entire setup and thus my journey began...


1. Churchill, Sir Winston S., Painting as a Pastime. Rosetta-Books LLC, 2014, p30.