Biography
Mark Brennan is a Canadian artist whos work is an exploration of the human connection and contemporary use of the landscape. He works primarily as a landscape painter and photographer.
“I believe there is a subconscious interaction between all of us and the places we live. The stories of our lives and the way in which each of us connects to one another are deeply influenced by our understanding of the places and processes we come into contact with.”
“When I paint or photograph, I am driven by both past memory and experiences in natural areas as a child, I feel as if I am seeking some kind of perfection or beauty through art.”
Marks formal study period took place in the Royal Navy where he was exposed to many forms of photography as a ships photographer.
In the mid 1990’s he became friends with writer, philosopher and environmentalist David Orton (1934-2011) who lived nearby. David helped Mark expand his understanding of the human place within nature and the fractured ecological relationship that has come to define our time. This drew Mark into activism in the 1990’s where he lead efforts to protect wilderness areas in Northern Nova Scotia. “When you come to identify deeply with the landscape, you come to see it as yourself in a way, it is this ‘self realization’ that seems to give me the underlying energy to express a sense of completeness or wholeness of ‘being’ through painting or photography. For me my work is more a way of living, a pathway of continued learning and deep gratitude.”
Photographic work cumulated in the book Almost An Island in which Mark looked deeply into the narrative of Nova Scotia’s relationship with its remaining wild coastline and the book, Limits On Gatherings, an intimate photographic response to the Covid19 pandemic where he sought out normalcy photographing the landscape to balance out his work in a regional hospital during the pandemic. This body of work was published in mid 2022 and is a part of the National Gallery of Canada library collection and the library collection of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.