Fundamental Thoughts Of An Artist

Everything in life is hard work, nothing is easy! Finding work, keeping work, pursuing your dreams, accomplishing your dreams, finding true love, keeping true love, and all the rest. Good news is 'life', just as it is, a blank canvas, with nothing on it, is total perfection and resounding joy, and the artist has the great pleasure and responsibility of painting that canvas, opening the window and showing the magnificent view to a people tangled up in the everyday routine of daily tasks or those of us looking for something greater.

Sometimes there is more to life than being strong, believing and triumphantly achieving our dreams, sometimes it's best to just surrender to the overwhelming madness and chaos of it all. Give in to the struggle, accept there are things we can't do, give in to the mountain... and wait. Wait for things to change, for the mountains to crumble, for the sun to set and a new dawn to rise, for the shooting stars that carry our and dreams to fall in to our hands. 

I'm off to the studio this morning, to work on a new painting, because I'm an artist and that's what artists do. An artists profession is to create - not sell. That comes later. Vision comes before profit.

It's about tapping in to the magic and manifesting it in to existence, in new work. The world always needs more magic, now more than ever. It's about being present in a sacred moment, feeling and communing with the energy and abstract concepts that come to mind. It's about opening up, going deeper, inspiring the psyche of a world that needs a story, meaning and guidance.

'The Past And Future Actions Of Involuntary Spontaneity' Sold

Acrylic on canvas, 207 x 144 cm

Vision for the Future

Starting as of next year, I predict a future where #art and #vision are leading forces in the change, attitude, and environment we want to see. 

'Kaleidoscopic Supersonic Thoughts Like Coloured Marbles Firing'

Acrylic on canvas, 150 x 150 cm

Commissioned Mural and Paintings at No.15 Great Pulteney Street Hotel, Bath

In the summer of this year, I had the great pleasure of meeting Hotel owner, Ian Taylor, who bought two of my works and commissioned me to paint a mural.

When I first arrived to make a start on the mural in one of the guest rooms, the whole place was in a process of transformation. The Hotel, now in completion, stands out from the conventional, emphasising originality, yet charm and elegance. It has a contemporary style that runs throughout which is distincive and attractively unique, and many of the furnishings exhibit this.

If you have an eye for the grand and intriguing, then this is the place to come to.

I very much enjoyed working with Ian, and wish him all the very best with this exciting enterprise.

Hotel owner, Ian Taylor and myself at No.15 Great Pulteney Street, Bath

My painting, 'The Clicking And Exploding Of Chance Actions' in one of the guest rooms

My painting, 'In The Mechanical Console Of My Orchestral Eye' in another of the guest rooms

My mural, 'The Sweet And Sour Twist Of The Curiously Luxurious' in one of the loft guest rooms

Art Into The Future

The exciting thing about being an emerging artist, is that it's down to you to anticipate how your work will fit in to a future world. There are current, mainstream artists whose work is everywhere, and their work is 'Art Now'. It's contemporary. Also, however, is the work being produced by today's emerging contemporary artists.

It's interesting to contemplate a future world, a future society, and how we as artists will shape that change. We shape it by dreaming it, by designing it, by painting it. What sort of future do we want?

Picture the scene. Feel the atmosphere. Just put it out there. Our thoughts create the reality we live in. 

My work is big, energetic, strong, colourful, vibrant, positive, playful and sensual. 

I envision a world where these are the qualities and characteristics promoted by a successful economy and culture. I do this because that's the reality I believe in, and as an artist I feel a resounding calling to manifest it. I believe in power, but one of celebration, not oppression. 

Preparing work for exhibition at The Island, Bristol, 2015

My Experience Of Working In The Studio

How would I describe my experience of being an artist, working in the studio?

Well, at times it's great. When I'm in the zone, focussed on my work, the music's playing and the world outside, and all the drama that's going on out there, just doesn't matter. The real drama is in the mind of the artist! It does at times however, get quite lonely. Dedicating your time to your vision, and how you feel how the world would benefit from your vision, is tough, it's a real slog, especially when much of the world outside the studio walls are none the wiser of your work let alone your existence. It's mentally and emotionally challenging, not to mention tiring and costly, but the way I see it, there are ups and downs in all of life's endeavours.

I think it's important to acquire a certain balance in life as an artist. When I'm not in the studio, I'm at home preparing ideas for new work, going out for long walks and catching up with other interests and activities. I believe this keeps you sane, and refreshed!





Working on a painting in the studio in 2015

Symbols And The Art Of Abstract Language

These prints are an additional thread of work I have recently been exploring. 

I started off by drawing several hundred symbols, completely spontaneously, then picked out several I felt had some kind of resonance.

I then had to learn how to do some basic screen printing. I also had to learn about the qualities of the paper and how the choice of paper affects the final outcome.

I became interested in the relationship between different symbols, in different colours.

I think abstract, symmetrical shapes are the most natural and simple forms of communication, as it is in art. Our own alphabet is composed of shapes, when assembled in to words communicate a vast complexity of meaning.

I became very interested in developing another language that could evoke interpretative concepts, and found that by doing so the means to describe new ideas and ways of thinking is infinite.

These are open to interpretation, but are in themselves playful yet sophisticated works to reflect on.

Silkscreen prints on Somerset Newsprint Velvet and Saunders Waterford archival paper,
Limited edition

These prints are available to buy on request. Click the link below for more on my website.http://www.markelliottsmith.co.uk/original-prints.html