Mark Peters Henry Monsarrat

Mark Peters Henry Monsarrat was born on December 7th, 1950, a day which he joked would live in infamy for at least two reasons; for the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, and for Mark’s birthday.

Mark had an insatiable curiosity about the world around him, never shy to ask questions. He eventually fashioned himself into a bit of a Renaissance man, a graduate of the Columbus Academy (original campus), confirmed at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, then earning five college degrees in technical and artistic subjects, including a Bachelors and Masters in mechanical engineering, an MBA from The Ohio State University, and after he moved to California, followed by a BFA in drawing from the California College of the Arts and MFA in painting from the San Francisco Academy of Art.

After an often difficult home life, under an often hypercritical, alcoholic father, Mark chose to live lightly, avoiding the traditional milestones of marriage and family (the value of which he came to appreciate later in life vicariously through others), focusing instead on his twin passions of art and music.

As to music, Mark studied piano briefly then went on to develop his own piano stylings, playing from melody and chords, often worked out by ear. Adding his voice, Mark drew from the great American songbook, of sing-along classics and show tunes, with the occasional classical piece for good measure.

As for his artwork, Mark early embraced outdoor landscape painting as a teenager, working outdoors long before it was popularized as plein air painting. Mark pursued an eclectic education in the arts at various schools, given its subjective nature, but eventually came back to his first love of traditional landscape paintings in oil, both plein air and in the studio.

Having worked for a time in the foundry industry as an engineer and later in business administration, Mark visited San Francisco and discovered their unique Street Artist program wherein people were selling their creations to the many tourists passing by.

Following his desire to further his eclectic art studies, eventually to earn a living as an artist, and to live in a more temperate climate than his native Ohio, Mark moved to San Francisco in 1981. There he would work as a San Francisco Street Artist for the next 20 years selling his intricate pen and ink prints of city sights directly to tourists from around the world, and through gift shops. Mark’s pen & ink prints were originally hand painted in watercolors, which eventually gave way to prints of his more whimsical watercolor paintings.

After his Street Artist years, Mark moved on to neighborhood street fairs (so-called art & wine shows), traveling locally in the San Francisco Bay Area, then around the Western United States. With this came the opportunity to paint larger pieces, mostly in acrylics at first.

Mark’s artistic pursuits culminated in his return to art school for his MFA in Painting from the Art Academy of San Francisco in 2010, and a return to traditional fine oil painting, which Mark purveyed through shows, plein air competitions, and galleries for the next 14 years.

Mark is survived by the family of his deceased brother, Robert Jr., including his wife Mary; nieces Helen Monsarrat Gupta and Julia Monsarrat; and nephew Robert Monsarrat, III.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Glioblastoma Research Organization, https://www.gbmresearch.org in his memory.