Marc Graison (Born 1959)

Marc A. Graison, known for California and New Mexico oil landscapes and plein-air painting was born in 1959 and raised in the California San Francisco bay area. Currently, he divides his time between California and New Mexico. He is primarily known for impressionistic oil landscapes, both plein air and studio work, of scenes from both locations, especially coastal landscape California subjects. He paints with fluid brushstrokes using a natural and limited color palette in the California impressionist landscape style.

Scarcely self-taught, Graison’s formal art education includes study at the California Art Institute, University of Chicago, and the Scottsdale Artists School. He received extensive critique under master landscapist Wilson Hurley, and undertook private study with southern California painters, Darwin Duncan and Karl Dempwolf.

He is an artist member, Oil Painters of America, a member of the California Art Club, a founding member of the Rio Grande Art Association (New Mexico), and a member of the Plein Air Painters of New Mexico.

Major artistic influences have been the early 20th Century California impressionists, and especially those that subscribed to personal philosophies of “God in Nature”, such as William Wendt. Deeply spiritual, Wendt perceived nature as a manifestation of God and viewed himself as nature's faithful interpreter. Both Graison and Wendt worked out of doors, often sketching in oil and sometimes painting large, finished works. Interestingly, both Graison and Wendt attended night courses at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, although nearly a century apart.