MARK MESSERSMITH(click)

Florida Artist

King Fishers             Mark Messersmith  2011
photo by elizabeth gordon

detail from King Fishers

Ogden Gallery Show 

detail from king fishers

 "Mark Messersmith moved to Florida in the 1980's. He began teaching at Florida State University.  He was immediately stuck by the wildness of the surrounding landscape, a wilderness gone from much of America.  In Mark Messersmith: Maximalist and Naturalist, he continues his exploration of the tension between this wild, living place and ever increasing human expansion.  Drawing on inspirations ranging from the Pre-Raphaelites(click), Martin Johnson Heade, Southern Folk Art and mediaeval manuscripts, the painting of Messersmith are dense, radiant and sculptural depictions of the flora and flauna of Northern Florida struggling to survive."  An excerpt from the Ogden Museum description of Messersmith's work.

Wild as Angels   Mark Messersmith   photo by elizabeth gordon
from the Ogden Museum collection

Florida birds by Messersmith   photo by elizabeth gordon

Wild Florida by Mark Messersmith   photo by elizabeth gordon

The dense swamp of Northern Florida                        photo by elizabeth gordon from the Ogden collection