Throughout his early years, Mark studied intensively in dance, voice, theatre, the martial arts, and competitive baton twirling. He won over 700 awards for modeling, dance, and baton competitions, including more than thirty world championship titles. From this unusual background Mark chose the visual arts for his career. He majored in painting at John Herron School of Art in the United States and began doing social, philosophical, and environmentally oriented work in his senior year. This nature/civilization content in his work was translated to wildlife and landscape subjects the following year, and has remained his primary subject matter since 1993.

Mark’s art has been exhibited and sold through museums and galleries around the world. His paintings have sold through Christie’s auction house in London, Sotheby’s, and Bonham’s in Singapore. In the year 2000 he was selected as featured artist for the international “Beauty of Formosa” exhibition with the National Museum of Natural History in Taipei, Taiwan. And in 2002 his art appeared in a special exhibition at the National Geographic Society in Washington, DC. Mark is an inductee of the internationally acclaimed Society of Animal Artists and the Artists for Conservation organizations, and his work has been seen in numerous magazines, books, and television shows around the world.

Mark Kelso teaches workshops at Artistic Designs Gallery about twice a year as he can work them around his show schedule. In his workshops he has taught participants step by step the techniques that he uses to create the variety of textures in his paintings. Mark has used Artistic Designs Gallery to frame his large scale commissioned pieces. The image on our home page features one Mark's paintings that we have framed. You can see more of Marks work on his website at markkelsoart.com.

Some of Mark’s US Exhibitions Include:

Natureworks Annual Exhibition - 2009 2-D Best of Show

“Art of the Rainforests” museum tour 2005-2006

San Diego Museum of Natural History Wildlife Art Exhibition 2006

Bennington Center for the Arts international “Art of the Animal Kingdom”

Southeastern Wildlife Expo

Florida Wildlife Art Expo

Waterfowl Festival

Carmel International Art Festival – Best of Show, Artist’s Choice

Germanton Gallery, “Things With Wings” – Featured Artist

Annual Society of Animal Artists Exhibitions and Museum Tours

“Rainforests: The Breath of Amhakia” solo exhibition

“The Nature of Amhakia” solo exhibition

Northern Wildlife Art Expo, Featured Artist

Pacific Rim Wildlife Art Show

“Wolves: Intimate and Lighthearted” solo exhibition