Born in 1953 in Michigan, Mark Newman moved to New York in 1982, where he lived for ten years before moving to Atlanta in 1992. There he met his wife, Stephanie, who was an artist at the time. She played an important role in Mark's development and decision to become an artist. After discovering Mark's talent in 1994, she convinced him to experiment with painting. With her gift to him of his first watercolor palette and with much encouragement from Stephanie, Mark began to develop his own style of painting. Being completely self-taught, Mark had a tendency to paint sometimes very brightly. His discovery of marine tropical fish as a subject perfectly fit with his imagination and artistic approach, and now they are his passion.

Although he takes some liberties with corals and sponges on reefs, his fish are painted accurately, while still retaining an artistic and "painterly" feel. He tries to capture both the color and personality of his subjects in both his watercolors and seriolithographs. Mark is today considered a master of the artistic depiction of reef fishes.