Mike Mazer
Mike has been painting professionally since 1993, having drawn and painted extensively as a child. Knowing he wanted to become an artist, he still has his portfolio with work he did early on, preschool and thereafter.
Being a maritime artist primarily along the New England Coast, he has exhibited with the American Society of Marine Artists in their traveling Exhibitions, to Museums throughout the country; the National Maritime Exhibitions held at the Coos Art Museum in Oregon, (including this year, 2019, where two paintings will be on exhibit) as well as the Mystic International Maritime Exhibition; the Copley Society of Art (Boston) National juried Marine Exhibition “Atlantic and Beyond”; and the International Society of Marine Painters. Mike has exhibited with the National Watercolor Society and other national and international exhibitions where over 700 of his representational maritime works have been juried garnering him over 110 major awards. Mike is an elected and/or signature member of 37 national art societies. These memberships include; American Society of Marine Artists; Watercolor U.S.A. Honor Society; Transparent Watercolor Society of America; Texas Watercolor Society’s Purple Sage Brush Society; The Salmagundi Club and Fellow, Maxima Cum Laude, in the American Artists Professional League. In 2017 Mike was unanimously approved by the National Board of Directors of the American Artists Professional League as the first Signature Member elected in many decades, and the eighth Signature Member in the AAPL’s 93 year existence; there are currently over 600 members in the organization and only 13 signature members. To quote Peter Rossi, President, “As a newly appointed Signature Member, you now join a select and prestigious group of fine artists including Emile Gruppe, Frank Herbert Mason, and Frank Reilly.” In 2013, The Cape Cod Art Center established a Master Artist category, and Mike was among the first to be elected to that status. He is a designated artist with the United States Coast Guard where ten of his pieces are in their permanent collection in Washington DC, and an additional commissioned piece in the USCG Historian’s Collection in Washington, commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War. In 2017, Mike was recognized by Marquis Who’s Who Publishers with their Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award for excellence in his fields of medicine, science and art.
While serving two terms as President of the New England Watercolor Society, Mike established the Society’s first home Gallery since the Society’s inception in 1885 in the Emmanuel Church on Newbury St. in Boston. He was Educational Program Director for 10 years for the Canton Art Association in Canton Mass.
His image of the “New Bedford Whaleman Statue” was reproduced for the cover of the book “A Bold and Hardy Race of Men: The Lives and Literature of American Whalemen”, by Jennifer Schell, published by University of Mass Press in August 2013. Two of his paintings are included in Splash 10, (2008) and a piece in Splash 9, (2006) both published by North Light Books which reflect the works of 100 of the top contemporary watercolorists in America. Mike’s work is also represented in “The Artistic Touch 6” (2014), “The Artistic Touch 5, (2012), and “The Artistic Touch 4” (2010), representing 120 of the best artists in America. He had been invited by North Light Publications to write a book on realistic watercolor painting.
He has exhibited in over 50 different Museums across the country and is in the collection of, as well as having invitational solo shows locally at the New Bedford Art Museum, New Bedford Whaling Museum, Cape Cod Museum of Art, and the Massachusetts Maritime Academy.
Two of Mike’s paintings were selected from the Coast Guard’s collection in Washington D.C. by guest curator for the Zeeland Maritime MuZEEum, Leendert van der Pool, in Vlissingen, Holland for an international exhibition in 2009 celebrating the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s European founding of New York (New Amsterdam). Mike’s work is in many public, private, corporate and museum collections throughout the United States.
