Alongside traditional work, Woodford Green artist Mark Lewis creates images using digital imaging techniques, like this view of Hollow Pond and Leyton Flats, drawn on an iPad
I am a designer-maker, specialising in silversmithing and jewellery, and also a landscape artist. I worked for a major jewellery and silver manufacturer in London before establishing my own workshop in 1981.
In 1985, I entered full-time teaching, although I continued to maintain a freelance consultancy. Until the summer of 2009, I was a principal lecturer in the Sir John Cass Department of Art, Media and Design at London Metropolitan University. I currently lecture part-time at the Goldsmiths’ Centre in London and was, until recently, a part-time lecturer at Birmingham City University and the University of Creative Arts in Surrey.
I am a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Horners. I’m also interested in folklore, especially seasonal traditions, and am an active member of the Folklore Society.
In the last 20 years, I have actively pursued an interest in the history and practice of landscape painting and drawing. I work with both traditional and digital imaging techniques. Drawing is my greatest artistic passion.
I am also interested in the relationship between art and spirituality. Some drawings are generated on an iPad and produced as giclee prints. My long-standing interest in lighthouses is reflected in my love of maritime landscapes and the contrasts between man-made structures and the wild and often unpredictable environment of coastal terrain. These places continue to provide powerful inspiration for some of my recent work.
However, my current work focuses on expressive and gestural mark-making, responding to the hidden energies and textures in the landscape and is gradually pushing towards semi-abstraction. My latest drawings have celebrated the Essex coast and countryside, and a recent solo exhibition of drawings at the Epping Forest Visitor Centre in Chingford drew inspiration from the drama of light and shade and the sense of mystery they evoke in the forest environs.
I enjoy the immediacy of working with sketchbooks and I’m never without one!
Mark runs bespoke workshops and training courses on iPad painting, drawing technique, creativity and design. For more information and to view more of Mark’s work, visit marklewisart.co.uk or following him on Instagram @mlewis342
