Mark was born in Bermuda in 1957 moving to England in 1966. He began painting at the age of 8 and has pursued his passion for art throughout his life.
Mark studied Fine Art Painting at St Martins School of Art and the Royal College of Art.
His life and work have taken him across the globe, living in Nepal, India, and the USA. Despite his international experiences, Mark has always identified as a Bermudian.
New Contemporaries – ICA – 1977
Stowells Trophy – Royal Academy – 1978
Stowells Trophy – Royal Academy – 1979
Discerning Eye – Mall Galleries – 1991
Art in Mind – Brick Lane Gallery – 2009
Birley Center – Solo Exhibition - 2011
Bad Behaviour – Brixton East - 2016
Open – Devonshire Collective - 2018
The Holy Art - The Factory - 2020
Ultra Modern - Old Fox Yard - 2024
Sussex Open - Sussex Contemporary - 2024
Mark’s paintings represent a profound exploration of color, structured by the intriguing principles of probability and quantum mechanics. His work is characterized by the successive layering of grids or matrices, a meticulous process that reflects the inherent randomness and order found within quantum systems. Through this method, Mark creates a dynamic interplay of form and color that invites viewers to engage with the unpredictable and the infinite.
Each piece is a symphony of color washes, meticulously applied and then selectively edited to evoke specific emotional responses. Mark’s intuitive process of deciding what to reveal and what to obscure in his compositions reflects a deep engagement with the emotional potential of color and form. The resulting works are both complex and contemplative, offering a visual experience that is as much about feeling as it is about seeing.
Mark’s use of quantum mechanical principles as a structural foundation brings a unique scientific dimension to his art. This approach not only influences the physical composition of his works but also resonates with the viewer on a conceptual level, challenging traditional perceptions of order and chaos.
In essence, Mark’s paintings are an invitation to explore the intersection of art, emotion, and science. They remind us that beauty can be found in the most unexpected places, and that the creative process, much like the quantum world, is full of surprises and infinite possibilities.
Mark makes work at a phenomenal rate, but often his artifacts are reworked or destroyed. Work may be repainted in a continual process or maybe after many years may be "tweeked" or overpainted.
These works are not exempt from being repainted.
These works are sometimes experimental or studies for more complex works.
They are not exempt from Mark's process of "painting out the good bits"
Whilst at St Martins studying painting, Mark built a barricade or fence in the studio that he shared with several other people - This was to cordon off and seclude a section of the studio so that he could work privately and unobserved. It was made of wood salvaged from the skips of Soho.
He would paint on canvases on the opposing wall and used this wooden structure to clean his brushes. As time went on the structure/fence/barricade started to develop into an artwork in its own right.
This led him to make several deliberate fences and these structures have been present in his work ever since.
He views these as defensive structures that protect his inner thoughts from the viewing public, so in some senses they are not artworks at all.
Between 2006 and 2010 he painted a series of these fences that he called "The Autobiography Fence" with one fence representing every year of his life up to the age he got married to Jackie.
There were thirty two pictures in all, as the first one covered the first three years. These were exhibited as a continuous fence at the Birley Center in Eastbourne in 2010.
Just as the Fences developed accidentally. The 'Splinter Groups' also seemed to make themselves. As Mark was making fences by painting on individual pieces of wood, reclaimed from skips and the streets and beaches of Eastbourne, they began to accumulate in piles around his studio and his house.
As these piles took up too much floorspace when lying flat, he began to put them in groups, leaning them in the corners of rooms or against walls. Before long they started to get to a tipping point, where they asserted themselves as works of art in their own right.
These were in some senses the opposite of fences because they were not defensive structures. They also had the added bonus of being re-arrangeable, making them very amenable to other people playing with them and creating their own grouping or artwork with them.
There is sometimes a dilemma with the containment of the Splinter Groups in a gallery setting. Mark is now working on a new series which are contained within a "crate" which acts as a framing device. He is linking this idea with his "Carbon Capture" project where wood is reclaimed and sealed in recycled paint to capture the carbon of the wood. These are a few of the maquettes for larger works that he is working on.
The Shutter series is the latest manifestation of Mark's work using paint and wood.
They were inspired by a recent trip to Bermuda where he created a series of paintings in oil that included hurricane shutters within the paintings.
He was drawn to them because they were similar to the idea of fences or barricades, in as much as they shielded the view from the viewer. They were another defensive structure which explored the idea of painting being a refuge where the truth or statement from the artist is hidden or sublimated.
Mark has been making ceramics of one sort or another for the last 30 years. He is presently making bottles.
These are some of his latest works.
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