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About John MacKah

I am a native Floridian, born in 1952 in St Petersburg. My grandfather, John Samuel Kah, was born in Georgia and moved to the Tampa Bay area, where he practiced commercial photography. My father learned photography from him and later worked as a photo engraver. I was surrounded by a family who was engaged in photography, printmaking and visual arts in some fashion.

At age eight, I developed a serious interest in drawing, particularly wildlife, and studied privately with muralist S. Rosvear Burton while in high school. At the Ringling School of Art in Sarasota, I pursued private study with sculptor Leslie T. Posey. Since graduating, I have taught in diverse settings including Arrowmont School, John C. Campbell Folk school, Montreat College and UNC Asheville.

Landscape paintings on location and wildlife subjects are primary interests. I work primarily in oils and acrylics. My painting can be described as 20th century naturalism.

Statement from John MacKah

For me, painting is ultimately about the natural world. In painting , I am interested in arresting a moment’s perception and have tried to build a vocabulary to explain the intricacies of what I perceive. I cannot reproduce it, but hopefully I can simplify it into forms that can be read by the viewer. The inspired moment occurs in a microsecond of understanding, but in that fraction of time, I can see a finished painting that represents my understanding. The exacting hours at the easel are about keeping that moment in time pure. Technique is nothing more that building a usable vocabulary. Being knowledgeable in the correct applications of materials and using them in a craftsman-like fashion extends my proficiency in keeping the inspired vision alive.

I have built a visual language around the painters of the 19th century that reflects my engagement in similar concerns: they explored and raised questions about the relationship of Man and Nature and those questions are still valid with increasing pressures from development and destruction of species and habitat. These influences include the Barbizon, Hudson River School, Dusselforf School of German Naturalism, and especially Ivan I. Shiskin, the premier Russian landscape artist Charles R. Knight, animal painter George Inness and the ideas of William Morris.