Mark Kelvin Horton was born and raised in rural North Carolina. After graduating from East Carolina University School of Art in 1983, Horton moved to New York City to begin a career in advertising and design. He carried with him the dream of someday becoming a painter.

Eighteen years of living in New York were spent working as a creative director in various advertising agencies and eventually founding his own design company. Those years also provided an invaluable opportunity for Horton to view firsthand the seemingly endless number of masterworks of art in the city’s museums and galleries. Horton was captivated by the works of George Inness, Herman Herzog, Frederic Church and the tonalist photographer, Edward Steichen. He also admired and studied the realism of John Singer Sargent and Winslow Homer as well as the romantic landscapes of the Hudson River School painters. The experience had a profound effect on his artistic development.

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During his years working as an artistic director and designer, Horton continued to nurture his “fine art side”, drawing, sketching and painting whenever he had the opportunity. In early 2001 Horton made the decision to devote himself to painting full-time. He left New York City and returned to his Southern roots, moving to Charleston, South Carolina.

Horton is particularly fascinated with the effects of light and weather upon the landscape. He paints beyond a literal interpretation of a scene to portray nature in a way that reflects his own ideas and sensibilities while capturing the spirit, color and changing light of a place.

 

EDUCATION

East Carolina University, BFA-Graphic Design, 1983

Wingate College, 1978-1979

Studies with Michael Workman, Caroline Anderson and T. Allen Lawson

 

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2012 Southeastern Wildlife Exhibition  Charleston, SC

2012 Door County Plein Air Festival Invitational  Fish Creek, Wisconsin

2012 Cashiers Plein Air Festival Invitational  Cashiers, NC

2012 Waterfowl Festival Invitational  Easton, MD

2012 10-Year Retrospective, Wingate University  Wingate, NC

2012 Southern Scenes  Horton Hayes Fine Art, Charleston, SC

2012 Recent Paintings, City Art Gallery  Greenville, NC

2011 The English Landscape, Horton Hayes Fine Art  Charleston, SC

2011 Southern Legacy, City Art Gallery  Greenville, NC

2010 Salmagundi Club Non-Member Juried Exhibition  New York, NY

2010 Salon International Show  Greenhouse Gallery, San Antonio, TX

2010 Montgomery Museum Auction  Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, AL

2010 Autumn Competition  Bucks County Gallery, New Hope, PA

 

HONORS AND AWARDS

2009 American Impressionist Society 10th Annual National Juried Exhibition

2009 Salmagundi Club Open Exhibition - Winner: Washington Square Award

2009 Salon International Artist in Residence, Balsam Mountain Preserve, NC, August

2008 Paint the Parks Top 100  Artist in Residence, Lake Keowee Preserve, SC, December 2008

2008 Salmagundi Club Open Exhibition

2008 Artist in Residence, Balsam Mountain Preserve, NC, June

2007 Paint America Top 100

2007 Paint the Parks Top 100

Selected to represent South Carolina Artists, Art in Embassies Program for the United States Department of State, US Embassy, Ottawa, Canada

 

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Garden And Gun Magazine, August 2009

American Art Collector, November 2009

Southwest Art, November 2009

Charleston Style and Design, Winter 2009

Kiawah Island Legends, 2008 Volume 19/Number 1

American Art Collector, April 2008

Charleston Mercury, Spring 2006

Art and Antiques, October 2005

 

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

Oil Painters of America

American Society of Marine Artists, Signature Member

Charleston Outdoor Painters Association

 

SELECTED CLIENTS AND COLLECTIONS

Applera Corporation

Barbara Southerland Design, New York, NY

Cox Enterprises, Inc., Atlanta, GA

Daniel Island Club, Daniel Island, SC

East Beach Company, Norfolk, VA

First Citizens Bank, Greenville, NC

Harvell and Collins, PA

Hatteras Yachts

Hospice of Charleston, SC

Ronald McDonald House, Greenville, NC

Stuart Walston, Inc.

© 2010 Horton Hayes