Hi! I’m Mark, a 5th grader. I started doodling before I could walk. In a “happy little accident” when I was six, I discovered Bob Ross and learned to paint by watching all 31 seasons of his show The Joy of Painting.

When my parents saw how much I loved painting, they helped me set up a home art studio. I spend a LOT of time there every week reading books on art, experimenting, and creating art. For the first two years, I was obsessed with Bob Ross and painted dozens of landscapes. He made painting look so easy! I learned to paint trees with a fan brush and mountains with a palette knife, like in Early Winter Mountain, which is my favorite from that period.

As I learned more about art history, I started copying famous paintings. I learned about light and color by copying Girl with a Pearl Earring, which took me over two months. I sketched the Mona Lisa three times and painted two variations, Christmas Mona Lisa and a much larger Springtime Mona Lisa, to practice perspective, shadow, and sfumato, which is da Vinci’s famous technique of painting many thin layers to blur edges. Copying masterpieces really helped me paint at a slower and steadier pace.

I experimented with plein air painting for Shoreline Summer and Stanford’s Hoover Tower (Plein Air). Not happy with how the tower turned out, I painted another Hoover Tower in my studio with thick impasto strokes inspired by Van Gogh, one of my favorite artists. It took five weeks, but it sure was worth it! I made a few more paintings with vibrant, expressive colors and thick brushstrokes, including Fleeting Clouds and Starry Paris. I created Fleeting Clouds to celebrate 2026, the Year of the Fire Horse, and am very happy with the energy and freedom the painting conveys.

Over time, I found abstract expressionism energizing and made several progressively larger abstract paintings. My favorite is Imaginations. I used squeegees, splats, wet-on-wet blending, and even my handprints on a 48-by-36-inch canvas to convey the idea of letting your imagination flow freely and run wild with emotion. I am building an even bigger, 42-by-80-inch canvas to create a new abstract painting. I have primed it twice on the floor already, and after one more layer, I will learn to stretch it.

Our family trips are usually planned around art museums in Asia, Europe, and here in the U.S. Seeing a masterpiece in person is totally different from seeing it on a screen. Most visitors see the Mona Lisa from far behind a barrier, but I earned the chance to see it up close (that’s a fun story for another time!). I was shocked by how smooth the blending and shading were. During those trips and at home, I made a lot of drawings, including caricatures, hand studies, still lifes, watercolor sketches, anime, character style studies, and sometimes random everyday observations.

I make art when I’m happy, sad, or even bored. I want people to see how I feel. Be sure to visit often because I upload new artworks every few weeks! If you have suggestions or feedback, click the button below to contact my “agent” (a.k.a. dad).

Enjoy! 🎨🖌️🙂