Mark's watercolors are an immediate response to his environment: a marriage of structure and spontaneity. In a seeming paradox, the drawing underneath provides structure, while splashes of color lend the work a loose, stream-like quality. He compares his use of the brush to plants growing under water. According to Mark, "There's some wonderful stuff out there, fog, rain, water breaking over rocks, shapes, color, sounds," and he draws us in to share his experience of the changing moods of nature in an environment that is both organized and anchored yet flexible and flowing.

ark Howard was born in Tampa and completed graduate studies in fine arts at Florida State University before moving to Jacksonville to teach in the Art Department at Florida Community College at Jacksonville (FCCJ). Mark loved drawing, and won prizes for his work; but, he says, black and white art wasn't popular. He began browsing through math textbooks his students brought to art classes, kindling a renewed interest in the structure of numbers, and a decision to study business. After completing a graduate degree in business at UNF, Mark transferred his professional focus to the Business Department at FCCJ.

Nevertheless, Mark remained an artist. At home in Atlantic Beach, and during yearly summer sojourns on Little Cranberry Island, Maine, he took long walks. As he looked at the local landscapes and the water, he always thought of what he saw as paintings, a way of sharing his vision of the natural world. These images demanded expression and now, he says, "Drawing and painting light is what it's all about."