Mark has taken photographs for over 40 years. back then he developed and printed, now, works in zeroes and ones and in the light and his digital photographs are used extensively as influence to his paintings.
His early photographic work led to an arts foundation course at his local college in Wakefield. it was a brilliant year of learning.
Mark was fortunate through the work he created on foundation to gain a place at Goldsmiths University to study fine art-textiles between 1987-1991. he felt it was stimulating to be studying at the home of the british new-contemporaries, loved the degree course and the creativity and left Goldsmiths with a First.
Mark showed his degree show at Wakefield Art Gallery in a one-man show the following year. it was a huge fillip to be showing in the same gallery where still hung the inspiration for him undertaking the foundation course, a painting by Ben Nicholson.
Marks career path was varied, he made furniture which featured in interiors magazines and when he couldn't continue, due to illness, he self-taught himself design and went to work designing magazines. Mark worked for many years designing for Elle Decoration, Ideal Home, NME-Originals, Real Magazine among many others and went on to art direct several others.
For the last decade Mark has been painting, he has shown in many galleries and his work is in collections around the world.
Mark also makes self-published art-books, see the links on his contact page.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
I have been taking photographs since the early 1980’s. Certainly, from a European perspective, the most important aspects are composition and the frame around, what is left in and what is left out and with the advent of digital photography i finally found a way to make a complete photograph, just the way i wanted, when i pressed the button.
My inspiration when starting a painting is 99% from a photograph taken by myself. I want to make that photograph into a beautiful object which exists in its own place. I used to think what is the point of making something which already exists in my head? the only answer is the doing is the all that matters. Without it the next step would always be impossible. Through the making process the paintings change, colours don’t exist on their own, they effect other colours profoundly.
There is a melancholy which my paintings exude, they are stripped of all that is unimportant in telling my story and what is left is vital to understanding my aesthetic.
My subject matter is bound up in the beauty of architecture, the effect a considered buidling can have on our soul, that the human race is capable of producing lasting contemporary beauty but ultimately there is only one winner. nature.
“Best described as "muted urbanscapes", Mark paints layers of graphic, architectural detail onto board. Referencing a mixture of photography, memory and the imagination, His paintings feel nostalgic, but are ultimately strong structural forms.“ Lizzie Morgan