Bermuda · London · Sussex

Process, chance,
and what remains.

Mark Painter works on paper, canvas, and reclaimed wood — tracing memory, quantum uncertainty, and the marks left when intention meets accident.

View work About the artist

About

A life in material and mark-making

Born in Bermuda in 1957, Mark Painter studied at Great Yarmouth College of Art and Technology, St Martins School of Art, and the Royal College of Art. His practice spans decades of painting on paper and canvas, alongside installation works built from salvaged timber and recycled paint.

From early watercolours made on Himalayan treks to recent acrylic series on paper, the work returns to the same questions: how does process reveal meaning? What survives when control is surrendered to chance?

Surfaces
  • Paper
  • Canvas
  • Reclaimed wood
  • Great Yarmouth College of Art and Technology, 1975–76
  • St Martins School of Art, 1976–79
  • Royal College of Art, 1981–84

Exhibitions

Selected exhibitions

Group and solo shows across the United Kingdom, from student presentations at the ICA and Royal Academy to recent open exhibitions in Sussex.

  1. 2024

    Sussex Open

    Sussex Contemporary

  2. 2024

    Ultra Modern

    Old Fox Yard

  3. 2020

    The Holy Art

    The Factory

  4. 2018

    Open

    Devonshire Collective

  5. 2016

    Bad Behaviour

    Brixton East

  6. 2011

    Solo Exhibition — Autobiography Fence

    Birley Centre

  7. 2009

    Art in Mind

    Brick Lane Gallery

  8. 1991

    Discerning Eye

    Mall Galleries

  9. 1979

    Stowells Trophy

    Royal Academy

  10. 1978

    Stowells Trophy

    Royal Academy

  11. 1977

    New Contemporaries

    ICA

Selected works

Portfolio

A curated view across works on paper and canvas, fence panels, splinter groups, maquettes, shutters, and recent travel paintings.

Bodies of work

Series & installations

Fences

Mixed paint on reclaimed wood — alongside paintings on paper and canvas, panels that read as chronicles of political and cultural moment, dated and layered like strata.

View fences

Splinter Groups

Compositions of reclaimed wood and recycled paint — small constellations that suggest landscape, code, and collective memory.

View splinter groups

Shutters & Crates

Salvaged domestic and architectural fragments transformed into wall works and maquettes — domestic myth meets sculptural presence.

View shutters

Recent Works on Paper

An ongoing travelogue in acrylic — seventy-five works tracing a journey through India and Sri Lanka, painted as immediate responses to place, heat, and encounter.

View recent works

Practice

Method & inquiry

“The work is not a picture of something — it is the residue of a process. Quantum mechanics taught me that observation changes the thing observed; painting is no different.”

— Mark Painter

Process

Layers built, scraped, and rebuilt. Surfaces carry the history of their making — visible sanding, drip, and revision.

Chance

Controlled accidents: poured paint, weathered wood, found colour. The hand sets conditions; the material completes the sentence.

Material memory

Whether on paper, canvas, or reclaimed wood, each surface holds prior marks and histories. The artist adds a chapter without erasing the last.

Contact

Studio enquiries & commissions

For exhibition proposals, acquisitions, or studio visits, please reach out by email or connect on social media.

Complete work index (145 works)

Full catalogue of paintings on paper and canvas, and works on reclaimed wood — for reference and search indexing.

Paintings

Fences

  • Uk Riot — Mixed Paint on Reclaimed Wood (2011)
  • 1968 — Mixed Paint on Reclaimed Wood (2005-11)
  • 1957 — Mixed Paint on Reclaimed Wood (2005-11)
  • Fence 04 — Mixed Paint on Reclaimed Wood (2005-11)
  • 1983 — Mixed Paint on Reclaimed Wood (2005-11)
  • 1990 — Mixed Paint on Reclaimed Wood (2005-11)
  • 1984 — Mixed Paint on Reclaimed Wood (2005-11)
  • Fence 08 — Mixed Paint on Reclaimed Wood (2005-11)
  • 1982 — Mixed Paint on Reclaimed Wood (2005-11)
  • 1988 — Mixed Paint on Reclaimed Wood (2005-11)
  • 1986 — Mixed Paint on Reclaimed Wood (2005-11)
  • 1989 — Mixed Paint on Reclaimed Wood (2005-11)
  • 1987 — Mixed Paint on Reclaimed Wood (2005-11)
  • 1962 — Mixed Paint on Reclaimed Wood (2005-11)
  • Looking for Rainbows — Mixed Paint on Reclaimed Wood (2005-11)
  • Eden Burns — Mixed Paint on Reclaimed Wood (2023)
  • 1985 — Mixed Paint on Reclaimed Wood (2005-11)
  • 1981 — Mixed Paint on Reclaimed Wood (2005-11)
  • Cat Food — Mixed Paint on Reclaimed Wood (2015)

Splinter Groups

  • Iceland — Reclaimed Wood and Recycled paint (2016)
  • 59 — Reclaimed Wood and Recycled paint (2016)
  • Indian Summer — Reclaimed Wood and Recycled paint (2016)
  • DNA — Reclaimed Wood and Recycled paint (2017)
  • Local Group — Reclaimed Wood and Recycled paint (2016)
  • Devonshire Collection — Reclaimed Wood and Recycled paint (2022)
  • Thankyou Gillian — Reclaimed Wood and Recycled paint (2023)
  • Picnic — Reclaimed Wood and Recycled paint (2023)
  • Mix and match — Reclaimed Wood and Recycled paint (2023)
  • St Martins Days — Reclaimed Wood and Recycled paint (2023)

Crates

Shutters

Recent Works