Mark Harris

I have hurtled into my fithties in the blink of an eye and my art has been the one constant through it all. I am self taught artist who can blag that the only o'level I achieved was in art. I copied the vinyl sleeve from Meatloafs album "Bat out of hell". Sadly I was pretty sure this wasn't going to put food on my table so I squeezed and concentrated my work in between the every day chaos. Nowadays theres more time to stand in front of a canvas and ponder what will happen and were will this go. My work is influenced by van gough, Pablo Picasso and a Spanish (Lanzarote) artist called Cesar Manrique. I like to use strong line and bright colours which create the large forms that inspire me to keep working on the piece. My medium is mainly acrylic, charcoal and Indian ink but I have experiment with just about everything. My darker side paints much more abstract, figurative pieces but I am a little nervous of showing or selling these online but I do have a few collectors who buy this work. This encourages me to keep pushing myself and this helps me improve my impressionistic paintings. My work has changed over recent years and the landscapes I think represent a nostalgic feeling derived from my experiences during covid 19 lock downs. After all how can any of us not have found our work being touched in some form or another. My work now has a sense of emergency regarding the climate crisis and I can't remove these thoughts when painting outside or in the studio. It influences how I look at our beautiful landscape and natures relationship with farming and how modern approaches will impact on our wonderful countryside. Humans touch everything and their touch has damaged everything. lets hope for a brighter future