{"id":18658,"date":"2016-08-12T17:48:18","date_gmt":"2016-08-12T21:48:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/huntsville.dopperonline.ca\/?p=18658"},"modified":"2016-08-12T18:01:24","modified_gmt":"2016-08-12T22:01:24","slug":"mark-kulas-limberlost-open-studio-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/mark-kulas-limberlost-open-studio-tour\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Kulas is just one of the artists you’ll see at the Limberlost Open Studio Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"

Photos courtesy of Mark Kulas<\/em><\/p>\n

At the Artists of the Limberlost Open Studio Tour, you don\u2019t just get to see beautiful art. You get to meet the artists, too. There are 19 of them spread across seven host studios and they love to answer questions about the work that they do.<\/p>\n

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Mark Kulas is one of those artists. His year-round studio is in Pembroke, but in the summer he often paints at the family cottage on Bella Lake, sometimes at the table, sometimes in the gazebo, sometimes at the dock.<\/p>\n

The location provides ample inspiration for his vibrant paintings depicting simplified versions of the natural world, a style he\u2019s been working in since about 2001.<\/p>\n

For Mark, art has been an almost life-long pursuit.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all I\u2019ve really been able to do,\u201d he says. \u201cI grew up dyslexic and no one really had the capacity to spot that. Academically, I wasn\u2019t exactly setting the house on fire, so I took on the challenge of art and with practice it came.\u201d<\/p>\n

He used to do detailed and accurate wildlife art. \u201cA lot of the work I had been doing was black and white or earth tones. But then I saw this style \u2013 a simplied version of an image that has aboriginal influences from around the world.\u201d Being a professional illustrator and graphic designer, Mark thought he could combine his ability for accurate illustration with his love for nature to create works in that style. And it also had something to do with needing to fill blank wall space. \u201cIt ultimately had to do with moving into a new house that had a lot of empty walls,\u201d he laughs. \u201cIt was taking me 50 to 60 hours to complete a drawing that was 12 inches by 16 inches in size. These are faster.\u201d<\/p>\n

He bought a few canvases to try it out and everyone who saw them commented on their amazing colour. A successful show at a little gallery in Wilno convinced him that this style was the way forward for him.<\/p>\n\n\t\t