Mark was born in 1961, in Jordan, where his father was stationed as an RAF pilot. Aged seven he moved to England.
Mark studied printmaking at Cambridge College of Art and Technology, and then completed a degree in illustration at Brighton. He went on to work as an illustrator for 15 years, with clients including Penguin, Random House and the National Theatre. During this time he began to exhibit, and in 1990 Mark had his first exhibition at Beaux Arts Bath.

Mark has been the recipient of many prestigious awards and prizes, such as: the BP Portrait Award; the RA Summer Show; The Discerning Eye; and the Lynn Painters-Stainers Prize. Mark also teaches part-time at the National Portrait Gallery.

Mark is one of London’s most well regarded watercolour artists, and has a much experience teaching a wide range of students.

“Mark looks long and hard and with great clarity at his subjects but manages somehow to suggest the immediacy of a glance. Scattered objects carry weight, not symbolic but emotional, so that what seems incidental becomes telling.”
“Then there’s the light. He’s interested in it, not just as a vital source, but as an additional character, which, again makes his paintings so present. He captures the fleeting moment the light hits the glass or face and makes it vivid and integral; alive.”
Tamsin Oglesby

art prizes
Nat West Art Prize Shortlisted 1987
Hunting Art Prize 1998 /winner 2000/ 2003
Discerning Eye Competition 1998 / 1999 / 2001
Founders Prize
2014 / 2015 / 2016 / 2017 / 2020
Mentors prize 2019
Laing Art Prize 1999
R A Summer show 2001 / 2003 / 2006 / 2020
BP Portrait Award 2000 /2001 commended 2002
Threadneedle Art Prize 2010
Lynne Stainer’s Art Prize 2013
Sunday Times Watercolour Competition 2016 / 2019 / First prize 2020
Wells Art Contemporary 2018
Royal Society of Portrait Painters 2020