About ME

My name is Mark Mitchell. I am the fourth generation of my family in the McKenzie Valley. My mother's grandmother (Marie Surdam) emigrated from Norway.  She came to the valley with her husband and had a homestead near Goodpasture Bridge.  My mother's father (Forrest Jones) and his father (Ira Jones) both worked for the Forest Service.  When Forrest retired, he and his wife Annette (Marie's daughter) built an A frame cabin in McKenzie Bridge by hand.  Later on, after my grandparents and my father passed away, my mother (Heidi Jones Mitchell) lived at the cabin.  I loved visiting my grandparents in McKenzie Bridge during summers and spending time with my mother there when she returned home to Oregon.  I began renovating the cabin when I moved to Oregon in September 2022.

I come from a family of many artists.  My grandfather's mother and almost all of his siblings painted.  My grandparents taught Norwegian rosemaling after they retired.  My mother painted all my life.  She was an exceptional porcelain artist.  She exhibited at many art shows and taught china painting.  I grew up tagging along to her art shows and hanging out an art gallery off the riverwalk in San Antonio.  My mother eventually became president of the 600-member art gallery and I joined when I was old enough.  

When I was in high school and in college, I used to do a lot of pen and ink drawings, and I dabbled in watercolors.  I worked for many years in grant administration and community development.   I moved from Texas to the Washington DC area for work and started dabbling in oil painting around 2001.  I am mainly self-taught and spent evenings and weekends painting from my own photos.  When I bought a house in Hyattsville, Maryland I really dove into painting from my own photos of birds and flowers from my yard as well as landscapes from hikes.  I joined a local art group and started exhibiting at a local restaurant and art shows.  I look forward to continuing my art journey full time when I retire in Spring of 2026!