After Midnght
by
Mark Spain
Print number 67/275
Silkscreen
Image size: 525 mm x 655 mm
Mounted size: 785 mm x 920 mm
£ 375.00
In-demand contemporary landscape and figurative artist, Mark Spain first
came to the public’s attention it’s fair to say in 1987, when he was
chosen by Kew Gardens to create a collection of etchings to commemorate
the re-structuring of one of London’s most famous postcodes in the
aftermath of the destructive storm of that same year and one which had
torn through the South-East in the Autumn. Producing a series of
engaging and illustratively picture perfect renditions of some of Kew’s
(then) most user-friendly imagery, Spain made an indelible mark in the
hearts and minds of art fans of a landscape persuasion back then, which
essentially announced his arrival on the contemporary pictorial scene.
Whilst today he’s perhaps better known for his strong and visually
vibrant figurative work, he remains one of a new breed of artists who
can easily flit between differing genres and adapt his creative settings
to new ones as the commercial need and/or emotive will arises.
On
the back of the groundswell of public approval at the body of work
Spain manifested for Kew, further commissions started to roll in,
including other high profile visual invites from The NatWest Bank and
The Dorchester Hotel, who requested landscapes of their own. Galleries
also bent over backwards to accommodate Spain’s individual pieces, with
CCA Galleries of London at the time responsible for the publication of
many of Spain’s etched editions.
This was all a far cry from
Spain’s early days, and a childhood which although filled with an
artistic persuasion all of his own making, didn’t necessarily point in
the artistic direction of what actually lay ahead. After completing his
secondary education, Spain elected to study Technical Graphics as
opposed to a fine art discipline, attending Medway Art College in his
native Kent, before setting up a print-making studio once he left where
he spent a number of his early years pursuing this as a professional
career while all the time mastering his etching and collagraph
techniques.
Over a period of time though Spain felt the urge to
develop and stretch himself further as an artisan, and decided to turn
his hitherto landscape painted hand to the alternative creative realms
of abstract and figurative, and of course of late, to cityscape. Spain
is quick to point out when questioned that he enjoys nothing more than
to experiment with different subject matter and applied techniques, and
loves to rise to the visual and pictorial challenges which he sets
himself as he aims to expand his compositional horizons still further.
In terms of Spain’s collagraphs, etchings and paintings, many have been
successfully showcased at some of the UK’s most prestigious venues,
including the 20th Century British Art Fair, the Chelsea and Hampton
Court Show and the Barbican Contemporary Print Fair, all of which were
played out to large audiences in and around Britain’s capital city,
London at various times in recent history.
Spain’s first taste of
commercial success in relation to his figurative work – and the genre
in which he’s most identifiable as an artist in our opinion – came about
in 2000, and after being snapped up by one of the country’s leading
fine art publishers, Washington Green. Since then Spain’s seen many of
his signature compositions reproduced and subsequent exhibitions both
part and solo contemporary artist affairs selling out of work, whilst
he’s also been recognized and rewarded for his achievements in the
genres in which he chiefly operates and accumulative successes that he’s
witnessed by the Fine Art Trade Guild on a number of separate
occasions.
Speaking on this very subject, Spain offers the
following candid insight into his approach to his brand of art and how
he hopes and feels viewers and collectors interact with the fruits of
his creative labours. Spain; “My Figurative work was first published
some ten years ago. This range of work is constantly involving and I
enjoy the challenge of expanding ideas based on the female form”,
adding; “Movement is a key to many of my pieces as well as form, texture
and colour. This is something I feel I will be able to work on and
progress with, evolving and perfecting”.
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