His distinctive technique is oil on large canvas using only a palette knife, which provides a rich texture, adding to the intensity
one feels when looking at his complex figurative paintings, revealing the human condition.
He tries to capture the essence of his chosen subject, to give them depth and a presence on the canvas that portrays the intricacy
of our human existence. He often feels as if he is sculpting on the canvas.
Mark explores the duality within all humans, the balance and conflict of joy and sorrow, contentment and discontentment, love
and hate, torture and peace, what often is the tragic genius of the tortured artist and the pain it sometimes is to be human.
Something that is personal to McFadden is the alchemy of the soul; to reach a higher and more enlightened state of
consciousness, the allegory of taking base materials and transforming them to something of a higher incarnation, which is part of
the reason why he is attracted to painting people of an artistic nature, in essence they used simple tools and basic elements and
fashioned something of wonder from them, this is his tribute to their pursuit of expressing themselves in the attempt to
enlighten us.
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