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Mark Heine 
Writing has long been a integral part of Mark Heine’s creative process. In the pursuit of his original artistic voice, Mark’s writing has evolved to become the driving force behind his work, and has led him to envision a world of his own creation. Sirens, the culmination of 35 years of exploration, is inspired by the sea nymphs made famous in Homer’s Odyssey. These underwater visions of mythological muse are rooted in the moments of an ongoing and developing fictional narrative. This complex narrative, involving human evolution and our natural environment, is the unifying conceptual thread that ties together these surreal visions.
Labyrinth
30" x 40" oil on canvas
​
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The story point ...
Aerica hovers close in the labyrinth, keeping watch for the threat of the opportunistic.
She’s done what she can to help. Any more, and she risks being discovered.
​Sirenia, study
36" x 48" oil on canvas

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The story point ...
Dawn of the Siren genus. This is the visualization of an ancient myth within the Sirens book. The volume of Sirenia’s mournful song finds a sympathetic ear. Her compassion is the first spark of hope that two estranged worlds may yet become one.
​Her sacrifice will prove her salvation ... but there is a price to pay.
Furtive
30" x 40" oil on canvas

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The visualization of a key moment in the second book of my Sirens series.
The story point ...
She slips through the kelp labyrinth undetected. Most see this place as a random bed of bull kelp with no particular pattern or reason. But she knows every inch of this puzzle, and carefully engineered paths allow her to disappear almost instantly. It’s those fleeting glimpses that have added to the notorious myth that she cultivates. She just wants to be left alone.
Envoy
30" x 40" oil on canvas

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The story point ...
An envoy arrives with a message for Aerica. But his questionable reputation precedes him.
Cascade, study
30" x 48" oil on canvas

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The story point ...
From the first Sirens book: “Or perhaps we’re the stream, flowing on and on, oblivious to the chaos, just looking for the
​easiest way down the mountain.”
Deliverance
40" x 48" oil on canvas

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The story point ...
​This, then, is the myth realized. The hope that spawned their kind so long ago has come full circle, through the generations,
to this moment, built on the evolution of empathy. The path of her expectations, so long confused and conflicted, is now
​clear. From the start, it was never to be her future.
Duress, study
30" x 36" oil on canvas

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The story point ...
Sarah searches desperately for a place to make landfall. Death is coming for one she loves. The decision of who it will be is forced on her. 
Siren Song, study
36" x 48" oil on canvas

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The Sirens are calling, but you have to care to hear them. Extinction is on the horizon, as the greedy few gorge themselves on the entrails of our dying world. The UN reports that there are now a million species at risk of extinction. We must listen, hear, and get involved to change our course.
This world belongs to us all. The future belongs to our children.
​​​Mission Statement

I am a storyteller. My art is the expression of a carefully chosen moment, captured from a larger narrative. This story is constantly playing, moving forward and changing, as each painting alters the course of the narrative. As it ignites my imagination ​for the next. So the road is never a straight line.

I believe that artistic growth is directly bound to the challenge we undertake. The bigger the risk, the greater the reward. So how winding the creative road is, will depend on how far from a straight line you’re willing to push yourself. For me, the story is what I use to navigate that road – stories rooted in both my imagination and my experience. They give me a reason to paint ... a concept. They give the painting a reason to exist beyond the surface visual. Sometimes the journey is loud, long, and nerve wracking. Sometimes it’s short and quiet. Even tranquil. 

My writing has evolved, from simple anecdotes of my life, into the driving force of my creative process and how I connect to my subconscious. Using the anonymity of the story, I can explore and express my own joys and nightmares, pushing the edge of my comfort zone. It’s this creative licence that allows me to diverge from reality and present a surreal vision. It also gives me the freedom to explore darker themes. And the more I dip below the surface, the more I discover in myself. It’s an endless source of inspiration, because each visit opens a door to the next.

The human form is, in my opinion, the most difficult and complex challenge for an artist. Underpinning that challenge are the technical considerations that every artist faces. But the overlay, for me, is the most interesting aspect. And that comes from the nature of human interaction.

As humans, we have developed acutely tuned conscious and subconscious sensitivities to body language, posture, expression and situation. How we interact with each other is crucial to survival and is at the core of all culture. I call this the “social aspect.” These social aspect instincts vary from person to person, depending on his or her experiences, upbringing, religious beliefs, personal joys and pain. This diversity creates a reaction as personally distinct as a strand of DNA. I see this social aspect complexity as a unlimited, mysterious resource for reaching deeper and connecting with my emotions and those of my audience. And with figurative painting in particular, because it is “us,” these connections are critical if the work is to resonate.

It’s the artist’s job – whatever kind of art that may be – to tell the truth as he or she knows it. So while each painting is a new experiment in exploring the bottomless complexity of “us,” I strive to create an unobstructed vision and a clear, unpretentious communication of my thinking, through my realistic technique. I have found that bending and breaking traditional rules in terms of content, composition and viewpoint has given my work a distinctly rebellious, individualistic spirit. And it takes us all to the edge of comfort. But that’s integral in setting the imagination free.

There are those who say that originality is dead. That everything is derivative. I disagree. I think that originality is everywhere, albeit in widely varying degrees. I believe that my art is original. Certainly I have had influences, as has every artist. In particular, Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Vermeer and Rembrandt, through Degas, Monet, Rodin, Sargent, Parrish, N.C. Wyeth and Andrew Wyeth, to Robert Heindel, Bob Peak, Brian Johnson, my father Harry Heine, and my friend Brent Lynch. All have provided me with some tool or inspiration, but in the end, my way is my own. 

So this is where I am. The paintings I have done and the stories I have told are where I have been. The interesting thing, from my point of view, is where I’m going. And that’s the story yet to be told. That’s my mission.
Ring of Fire
36" x 36" oil on canvas

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The visualization of a key moment in the second book of my Sirens series.
The story point ...
The Ring of Fire is a massive, horseshoe-shaped band of volatile seismic activity at the land edges of the Pacific Ocean. The Fukushima 2011 nuclear disaster sent a plume of radioactivity to the Pacific coast of Canada on the North Pacific Gyre, and the effects will be felt by future generations, both on land and in the sea. What mutations will result? Only time will tell.

This surface of this painting was very slightly damaged while in progress (since repaired), during an earthquake that brought the lens of my studio ceiling light down on the wet paint. Hence its title.
​Biography

Originality is easily recognized, but elusive to achieve. To conjure something from nothing is the act of creativity, no matter the medium. I’m 41 years down the rabbit hole, and still descending. My life has been spent building a mental vocabulary to first visualize, then the physical ability to realize. Finally comes the passion: embracing a cause and using my skills to champion positive social change.

Mark Heine was raised by artists to be an artist. His was a childhood spent wandering his father’s massive warehouse studio, absorbing the progress and process of the monumental projects underway. It was art by the ton, measured in yards, not inches. There were always diverse skills in action, to watch and learn from: sculptors, designers, architects and artisans, working in plaster, resin, concrete, fibreglass, wood, stained glass, tapestry and, of course, paint. Mark’s father, Harry Heine, RSMA, CSMA, FCA, NWWS (1928-2004), would eventually become one of Canada’s most celebrated artists, culminating with his election to the Royal Society of Marine Artists in England. He is the only Canadian to ever have achieved that status.

As a child, Mark and his family toured and sketched the great cities of the world, immersed in galleries and architecture, first as students, then eventually as instructors. Learning the learnable from the masters ... technique, colour, composition, and so on, but also developing the sensitivity to recognize the intangible conceptual aspects that make the difference between a mere rendering and a work of art.


In his teens, Heine was awarded the 1979 Attorney General’s Art Scholarship, eventually graduating from the Applied Arts Program at Capilano University in Vancouver, British Columbia. He established his own studio and, over the course of 41 years, has become one of North America’s most sought-after talents, working through agents and galleries in New York, Los Angeles, Santa Fe, Denver, Philadelphia, Seattle, Nashville, Toronto, Vancouver, and Sidney, British Columbia, where he has shown with some of the most recognized artists in North America. His work can also be found in galleries and collections throughout Europe, including shows in 2019 in Dublin, and in 2019/20 at the European Museum of Modern Art (MEAM) in Barcelona. Corporate commissions for clients such as Sony, Disney, Starbucks, and many others garnered him more than 40 national and international awards, and the Art Renewal Center designated him an “Associate Living Master.” Heine’s work has also appeared in numerous print and online publications, including Hi-Fructose Magazine, Beautiful Bizarre Magazine, Magazin’ Art, Applied Arts Magazine, American Art Collector Magazine, International Artist Magazine, The Guide Artist Magazine, Poets and Artists Magazine, The Artist’s Magazine, Ophelia Magazine, Preview Magazine, Miroir Magazine, Realism Today Magazine, ARS Magistris Magazine, Galleries West Magazine and Voyage Chicago. Notable blogs featuring his work have included My Modern Met and The Creators Project. 


Heine has come to realize that he is a storyteller. Writing has long been a key component of his creative process, and the symbiotic relationship of these two distinct disciplines has led to a unique approach to both. Bringing one of those stories to life – to larger than life – marrying fiction to painting, is the focus of his most recent works: the Sirens series. Each of his paintings is a captured moment in his coming Sirens books, works of fiction in the genre of imaginative realism.

​Mark, his wife and creative collaborator Lisa Leighton, and their two daughters, Sarah and Charlotte, live in beautiful Victoria on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.

Terrestrial, study
24" x 36" oil on canvas

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This painting represents a moment in the second book of my Sirens series.

The story point ...
This painting took 400 million years to create – the beginning of life in thin air. This fossil is a tetrapod, the ancestor of all land-dwelling creatures of the biological kingdom Animalia. Four hundred million years of evolution brings us to Homo sapiens, Latin for “wise man,” the most highly evolved species on Earth. But the next evolution, for the survival of “wise man” – sustainability – must happen in mere decades.

Cipher
36" x 48" oil on canvas

Available from the studio
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​
The story point ...
In a land of great forests, civilization is built from wood, so little sign remains of the truly ancient ones. Their dwellings returned to the soil to feed the next generation of life, as is the cycle. Aerica understands that these strange carved stone petroglyphs carry a message from long ago – a message so important that it was set in stone. But she has no idea how to read them. What she doesn’t understand is that what they say is only half the mystery
Mark Heine
​is available for commissions.
​Please inquire with any questions to:
jsebastian@thenewyorkoptimist.com

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