Mark Horton
Town at Mid-Day
The artist uses a movie theater marquee based upon his love of movies as a child. Growing up, his older brother would often take him to a movie when babysitting his younger sibling and the scene he created is patterned off one of those days. The town is set on a hot summer day and when combined with the pickup truck and theater almost becomes a moment in time.
Town at Mid-Day is part of the art from the Burke Collection donated to the Midwest Express Center in 1998.
Hardware by School
The painting is loosely based upon a hardware store in Superior, WI that used to be the Superior movie theatre. After being vacant for years, it was converted to a hardware store. Growing up as a child the artist would travel into Superior and Duluth for “big city” adventures and one of these days served as the model for the piece.
Hardware by School is part of the art from the Burke Collection donated to the Midwest Express Center in 1998.
Town in Evening
The artist loosely based the painting on Winner, SD. But the work is representative of many small farming towns in Wisconsin. These towns are often like living museums that show a simpler time. The sun is low and warm and represents the warmth of many farming communities throughout the United States.
Town in Evening is part of the art from the Burke Collection donated to the Midwest Express Center in 1998.
Theater at Night
Horton crafted the painting from his memories of many small-town movie theaters. In the work, the town is quiet with not much light bathing the street or people milling about outside. The sign from the theater the main source of light illuminating the area. It is quite and surreal scene, but there is a life, energy and activity inside the theater.
Theater at Night is part of the art from the Burke Collection donated to the Midwest Express Center in 1998.
About Mark Horton
Mark D. Horton, a native of Saginaw, Michigan, was raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He began taking studio art classes at the University of Minnesota while working as a practicing lawyer. Although he found legal work interesting and engaging, his love of painting and art trumped the legal profession. In 1983, Horton quit his legal practice to paint full time. He and his wife Barb spent nine months in Spain in 1984, where he studied painting in addition to traveling. In 1985, he and his wife moved to Germany for four years.
In 1989, the Hortons returned to the United States, taking up residence in the Eau Claire area of Wisconsin for the next 18 years. In 2007, Mark, Barb and their daughter Claire moved to St Louis, Missouri, where they resided for 12 years. In 2019, they moved to St Augustine, Florida, where they currently reside.
Horton works exclusively with oil paint on canvas, most often on linen canvas. His art is often inspired by his travels by car through the United States using backroads to reach communities off the beaten path, but rarely are exact depictions of a specific place or event. Instead, he uses the imagery created in his mind to convey a tone or setting.
Horton has shown his works in more than twenty solo exhibitions throughout the United States and Europe, including Gallery Ezerman in the Netherlands, Gallerie Affche d’Art in Germany, Groveland Gallery in Minneapolis, Stellers Gallery in Jacksonville and Robert Morrissey in St. Louis. He has been reviewed in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Saint-Paul Pioneer Press, and the Minneapolis Star-Tribune among many other publications. Horton was also interviewed by Wisconsin Public Television in Madison to discuss his paintings and ideas regarding townscapes. His works have been used on the covers of the book “Café Wisconsin” and “A Place Called Home – Writings on the Midwestern Small Town.”
Major commissions include work for Securian, the Midwest Express Center in Milwaukee, Minnesota Mutual Life Insurance Company, St Paul, the Minnesota Department of Transportation, and the Dakota County Historical Society. Horton’s work is included in numerous corporate, healthcare, business and private collections across the United States.
Horton received his law degree from the University of Minnesota in 1979.
