Artist Statement

I grew up in rural Kentucky.  When I didn’t have to go to school, I spent a lot of time wandering around the woods and creeks near my house.  There wasn’t really that much to do, but I found the woods a great place to go.  They always seemed to change, and the most familiar things could all of a sudden seem very unusual.  As a landscape painter, I am still fascinated by that sort of wooded landscape I trekked around in as a kid.  The land, the trees, and the water all embody a sense of flux, discovery, and beauty.  Each time I go out to paint these things, it is to enter a passage filled with the sort of mystery that excited me so much as a young boy.

 Bio

Frederick Markham grew up in a small farming community called Russellville, in western Kentucky.  In 1998 he graduated from Transylvania University (Lexington, KY) with a Bachelor of Arts degree in fine arts.  In 2004, he earned a Masters of Fine Arts degree in painting from The George Washington University.  He began plein air painting in 2003, and since that time his paintings of forests and rivers have won numerous awards and have been exhibited both nationally and internationally.  He has held various adjunct appointments at colleges and universities in the Washington, DC, metro area.  He currently enjoys a full-time appointment as an instructor of painting and drawing at the Woodbridge campus of Northern Virginia Community College.