Award-winning artist Albert Slark grew up in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. In 1990 he graduated from the Alberta University of the Arts, majoring in Visual Communications and Fine Art. Post-graduate studies include classical drawing and painting with Michael John Angel in Toronto 1992. He also studied privately and at the Art Students League, N.Y. with realist artists Steven Assael and Max Ginsburg.
Albert started working as an illustrator since the mid 1990s, he has illustrated posters, ads for commercials, Sci/Fi game covers, postage stamps for the USPS and more than anything else cover art for paperbacks and novels. He has illustrated book cover art; crossing genres from action adventure to romance and everything in between for publishers across North America. He is highly sought after for his romance and western paperback covers. Some of his cover art can be seen on Pinterest and he has illustrated well over 600 book covers to date. Paperback illustration enabled Albert to paint portraits and figures in a variety of landscapes and indoor settings, as well as create masterful compositions in a myriad of lighting situations. Hence, paving the way for a career in portraiture.
His big break came in 2003, being only one of three Canadians to be commissioned by the USPS, to paint portraits of celebrities on commemorative postage stamps, featuring celebrities like Marian Anderson, Spencer Tracy, Betty Davis, Barbara Jordan, Paul Robeson and Countee Cullen.