Mark A. Brennan

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Mark Brennan is a Canadian wilderness painter. He was born in Swindon, England in 1968. His childhood years were spent exploring the Highlands of Scotland near the town of Helensburgh. It was this early influence that was to shape his developing interest in the landscape. At 16 he joined the Royal Navy and worked as a ship borne photographer during the latter stages of the Cold War, it was here he began to develop the technical skills that eventually moved him towards self expression through painting. At the age of 19 he emigrated to Nova Scotia, Canada and began to paint landscapes.

He was to be greatly influenced by the Group of Seven painters and Tom Thomson in the early 1990s. His naturalist abilities and love of the land brought him closer to the landscape, becoming interested in the protection of Canadian wilderness and helping to implement the protection of two large tracts of Nova Scotia wilderness. In 2006 he ran as a candidate in the 2006 federal election in the riding of Random, Burin, St Georges in Newfoundland. This work helped him to think about the human relationship to the natural world and he began to develop a new movement in the Canadian Landscape tradition that brings Canadian’s back in touch with the land that defines and sustains them, in this new developing movement he attempts to motivate viewers to lessen their own impact upon the earth. This he does by travelling and painting Canada's remaining wilderness areas and National Parks. He is very much influenced by the philosophy of Deep Ecology and Buddhism and sees his ‘spiritual’ relationship with the earth as paramount in expressing these ideas through art. This connection is also expressed by him in the form of poetry.

He is a member of the Federation of Canadian Artists (FCA) and is listed in the Canadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN) File Location, National Gallery of Canada.

[edit] Gallery

Morning, Bow Lake, Banff National Park, Alberta	View From The Rock Pile, Moraine Lake, Banff National Park, Alberta	Nearing Devils Eddy, Liscomb River, Nova Scotia	The Caribou Land, Jasper National Park, Alberta
Morning Light, Gros Morne, Newfoundland	Gros Morne, Newfoundland	Moon Over Lac Cascapedia, Gaspe, Quebec	Low Tide, Northumberland Shore, Prince Edward Island