Mark Beesley

After working as a solicitor for several years, I retrained at art college and then worked as a graphic designer and illustrator, while continuing to paint part-time. I have now retired from illustration work to spend more time painting and drawing. I also teach adult leisure learning classes in Art History.

I regularly hold solo exhibitions in Suffolk and contribute to group exhibitions in East Anglia, London and Somerset. In 2018 I was awarded the Sir Hugh Casson Drawing Prize at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and in 2020 the regional prize in 'The Discerning Eye' at the Mall Gallery. Commissions include a painting for a new Medical Centre in Ipswich in 2016 and my work is in private and corporate collections in Britain, USA and Europe.

My work is figurative, but drawn from the imagination as much as from my surroundings. My main interest is landscape, in particular the balance between the natural and artificial. In East Anglia the patterns and shapes and the structures and buildings imposed by intensive farming contradict our expectations of what rural Britain looks like. I try to express the incongruous, sometimes disturbing quality of these images and their abstract forms. Other themes include the built environment, especially where I live in Woodbridge, and still-life as a way to draw attention to the over-use of plastics.

I work in oils and watercolour, and also use pastel for working outdoors.

Web: markbeesleyart.com
Email: hmarkbeesley@btinternet.com