Passion on and off canvas

Artists Pearson, Nesmith unite in art, marriage

Art could be described as the creation of form and beauty, and Van Gogh said, “Nothing is truly more artistic than to love people.”

Either could be a fitting description for Mark Nesmith and Elizabeth Pearson’s Nov. 3 exhibition, “Love and Paint,” at TASI. The show is a celebration of their art, but also their personal relationship.

In a first for The Studio, an exhibition opening will also double as a wedding ceremony and reception.

And it has come to fruition by chance. Originally, Mark was scheduled to have a joint exhibition with David McGee, a photographer and colleague from Dallas, but a scheduling conflict prevented McGee’s participation in the show. Some might say the change is fate or destiny.

“It only seems fitting that after all these years The Studio would be the place we would make ourselves official,” Elizabeth said. “We first met at The Studio 20 years ago, and we’re still here.”

Elizabeth and Mark have long been fixtures in the area art scene, but each had their own independent life of family, work and art that has come full circle over that time. Approximately six years ago, Mark returned to Southeast Texas after living several years in Dallas, teaching and raising a family.

“I joke that we first met when I was naked,” Elizabeth said. “I was modeling for TASI’s life drawing class, and Mark was in the session — we just hit it off with a mutual interest in art and in The Studio.”

While life drawing and The Studio may have brought the couple together, it has been art that has made their partnership last.

“We’ve always bounced ideas off each other, and we discuss everything from the colors in the sky or a canal we’re driving past,” Mark said. “She understands when I suddenly stop the car and jump out to snap some pictures. Most people would call that crazy and wouldn’t tolerate it, but something like that will turn into a conversation about light and color.”

Mark said if one is painting all night, the other doesn’t get mad or upset about it. To be able to share the things they love is “amazing.”

“She’s helped me develop both in my artwork and in my career,” he said. “I owe much of the success I’ve had to her influence in my life. She’s my curator. She’s my critic. She helps me hang shows, and even drives me when she has to.”

Mark is known for natural and outdoor-themed oil paintings that heavily reinforce his connection to the Southeast Texas landscape of water, forests, swamps, coastal environs and wildlife. He has received wide acclaim and recognition for his commissions and his unceasing creative output on canvas, and additionally for his musical performances.

“What I love about this area are big expansive landscapes, and I try to imagine the land without a trace of mankind,” he said. “And what the world would have been like before humans came around and screwed it up. For the most part, I remove people and the element of people from what I’m looking at.

“It’s never one specific scene. It’s always just kind of a combination filtered through memories of my dad when I was young and all the family vacations we took.

“We had a big family, and my dad was a teacher. We didn’t have a lot of money, so all of our vacations usually were outdoors at state parks.”

Elizabeth’s body of work has previously focused on large oil and encaustic  paintings, but she transitioned to watercolor in the past year.

“Watercolors are unforgiving, and it forced me to be more patient in how I paint,” she said. “I hate to wait for things to dry before I continue on to another part and that’s been a new challenge for me.

“I also wanted something to do at the house that didn’t require a lot of space, and I didn’t want to have to set up easels all over the house and have the smell of turpentine where we live with kids and dogs.”

Elizabeth said she has also scaled down the size of her work and just wanted to start making art again on a manageable level.

“With kids and dogs and living there’s not a lot of space, so I’m working smaller than what I’m used to,” she said. “I’ve always done things out of pretty large scale. (I wanted) something that I could do smaller at home just to start making art again, because it has been so long since I’ve painted anything or shown anything or been involved in the community.”

Both artists credit the other as inspiration for their work.

“Mark is always working and is very prolific, and so much of his work goes out the door as soon as he makes it because it is either for sale or sold very quickly,” Elizabeth said.

Mark said the secret to his work ethic is simple.

“We don’t have a television in the house that is connected to cable or the internet,” he said. “We have recently gotten one of those digital things where you can get Netflix or something, but I learned long ago if I had a hundred channels I would find something to watch.  TV can be numbing if you let it, and it just takes you away from doing something else.”

Mark’s studio isn’t at home; it’s in his art classroom at Port Neches Middle School.

“I always keep a little pochade box in my room,” Mark says. “While my students do their work, I work, too. I’m really lucky I’ve got an incredibly supportive administration who loves the idea that I’m a practicing artist. I keep a spot setup in the back of my room, and in-between classes, before school, after school or lunch time, I always find some time to paint.”

The couple approach their work differently, but it is a complementary dichotomy of styles.

“Elizabeth likes to make things and paint when she’s interested in painting something, but she doesn’t have to do it all the time,” Mark said.

Elizabeth said Mark is more driven, more consumed with a regimen of work.

“Mark has to always be working,” she said. “He gets a little cranky and anxious if he doesn’t paint for a couple of days.”

Mark finishes her answer and likens the feeling to a craving more than a compulsion.

“For my entire life I was sketching, drawing, whatever, and if I’m not doing something like that I’m just not right,” he said. “I have ideas, and there’s no better way to get them out than to draw or paint.”

Both echo that painting is not only a bonding experience, but a positive outlet for their ideas.

“We find inspiration and the desire to have art in our everyday life,” Elizabeth said. “We’re always sharing with each other photos of our ideas, and it pushes us to work in a healthy way.”

For this show the two are sharing subject matter, but with a different view on how their depictions are painted.

“I’m taking the same type of subject matters he’s doing in oil then create a watercolor of it,” Elizabeth said. “So we’ll have a couple of pieces that are pretty much the same thing, but different views how we see it.”

Mark says that daily life and having a passion for art isn’t exclusive of each other.

“Art doesn’t necessarily need to be something separate from your everyday life,” he said. “In most cultures around the world, art is not just made to be held separate and on a gallery wall.

“It’s like when Van Gogh wrote in letters to his brother, Theo, that he never imagined his work in a museum or a gallery, but how it was going to look in someone’s home and where they would hang it. He expected it would be in a bedroom or where they eat, so the artwork would be a part of their life. We look at art the same way.”

That mindset on life started at TASI.

“We’re excited about the show, and, of course, getting married,” Elizabeth said. “It seems the right time for both. It was by chance we met at The Studio. It was by chance that David (McGee) was unable to make the show — so it only seemed natural that we join together for our life and our art.”

The opening reception for “Love & Paint” will be held 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.,  Nov. 3, and the show will remain on display until Nov. 23.

For information, visit www.artstudio.org, or call 409-838-5393.

Story by Stephan Malick, ISSUE staff writer