“I like to think that I’m walking down a dream path, taking pictures of what I see.”

That is how local artist Mark Niemeyer describes his creations. His ability to create these dreamlike scenarios has just always been there, he said.

“My interest in art wasn’t taught,” he said. “It just poured out of me.”

Niemeyer, a native of Nebraska, moved to northern California 25 years ago. “Friends told me that my art was strange enough to sell in California,” he chuckled.

His first stop was Marysville and then Woodland. He realized quickly that if he was going to make a dent in the art world that he needed to make his way to Sacramento. Within a month of moving here, he had some works in a gallery.

Many of his paintings are surrealistic, taking real-life images and warping them in some way.

“I’m proud that I don’t get stuck on one form,” he said. “I’m doing a series of birds right now and when I’m done with that I’ll move on to something else.”

Along with his many works that include people and animals, Niemeyer has developed a fascination with parts of California that Nebraska simply didn’t have to offer.

“Being in Nebraska you don’t really see any rocks,” he said.

This created his motivation to start doing some landscape paintings of rock formations in the area. Also not present in Nebraska is a certain type of tree.

“I did a series of paintings called ‘Midtown Palms’ and ended up with about 10 or 12 of them,” he said. “Those sold pretty well, actually. I sold half of them.”

Nearly all of his paintings are done using oil pastels, which he refers to as “adult crayons.” He discovered them nearly 30 years ago and he remains an avid user.

 

Prominently displayed

Niemeyer’s works can be seen all over the Sacramento area. He has pieces in The Supper Club on Del Paso Boulevard; Crepeville at 18th and L streets; Burgers and Brew at 15th and R streets; and Matteo’s at Arden and Fair Oaks.

As far as how he was able to get his art featured at these locations, he was largely in the right place at the right time.

Niemeyer works at The Supper Club as a cook. He describes himself as “a chopping and cutting machine” and he assists the chefs in preparation for their creations. The owners, Matt and Yvette Woolston, took notice of his art and decided to put some of his works up. At first Niemeyer thought they put them up just to be nice, but with the opening of Matteo’s in Carmichael, he knew that they really enjoyed his work.

“Yvette asked me if I could do three flower paintings for the opening of Matteo’s,” he said. “The problem was that it was opening in three weeks.”

The 15 feet of flowers that adorn the walls at Matteo’s is one of his proudest works. “I didn’t have time to go back and measure out what I wanted to do, I just had to do it and I think it turned out really well.” The title of the paintings is “Bee’s Dream”. He described it as what a bee would dream about, a vast expanse of flowers.

Conversely, there is also a painting of a rooster and hen in the restaurant entitled “Bee’s Nightmare.”

“I always try to put some humor in my art, especially in the titles,” he said.

The pieces that hang in Crepeville and Burgers and Brew can be purchased. Each has a card accompanying the piece with his number on it.

“There are plenty of ways to get a hold of me if you need to,” he said.

Most of his pieces range in price from $400-$700.

He is also featured at the new Maiya Gallery at 2220 J St. As of now, he has four pieces hanging inside and he has been penciled in to be a featured artist sometime in 2010. Some of his newest creations include a series of warped faces. One of the most striking is a piece titled “Yellow Nose Man.”

“I like the human face,” he said. “People are instantly drawn in by the eyes. ‘Yellow Nose Man’ was one of the first times I cut down the face into sections using different colors.”

To find out more about Niemeyer’s work, e-mail him at elzoharm@att.net or see some of his pieces at www.myspace.com/markharmart. Or, for a live encounter, perhaps just look up the next time you’re out to eat. You might just find yourself staring into a dream.

 

E-mail Benn at benn@valcomnews.com.