Bollocks to Bedtime! - Standard Limited Edition
£315.00
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Is there a more versatile or brilliant word that exists than ‘BOLLOCKS!’?! If there is then please share it. It’s funny, sometimes I feel choosing a title for a piece can be as hard as conceiving the concept for it. It’s the same for a song or movie title, it has to capture the mood and very essence of what has been created.
‘The Memory Remains’ was taken from a Metallica track that was on at the time yet was so perfect and has since been mentioned a few times! Sometimes the title becomes clear midway through the project, very rarely at the start. Yet this one was not until the very end, not that it was a bad thing.
The plan was always to create a nostalgia loaded image that pulled on the heart strings and was as cute as it was fun. The positioning of what you now see was always going to sit alongside ‘The Memory Remains’ series just like ‘Skool’s Out! 1 and 2 do, as they are all linked mainly through that initial day out to the toy shop, arcade, or cinema. However, the title couldn’t link to ‘The Memory Remains’ pieces as I wanted it to be able to viewed in its own right.
So, what started out as a challenge to find the perfect title moved away from something that could have been whimsical and warm to something so perfect as more and more toys were added to the bedroom. So, if those words were ever uttered by a child of that age, it without a doubt would have resulted in being sent straight to their room, but is that such a bad thing?! Just look at that room!
I know so many of you loved ‘The Memory Remains 2’ because of your affiliation with so many of the toys for sale within the toy shop and I hope you will fall in love with this piece just as much. So many of those toys have been bought and are laid out within the bedroom as well as so many cracking new additions that you may have forgotten about until now. ‘Bollocks to Bedtime’ is every big kids dream and is full to bursting with references that guarantees you will be saying ‘oh yeah I had one of those!’.
I wanted to capture that wonderful excitement that we had as a kid when we had so many toys that we truly loved, nothing compares to that era, our kids live in a very different world now. Not all bad of course but nothing will ever come close to the magic back then, amplified as I sit here with thoughts turning to Christmas and the utter brilliance of my memories as a kid around that time. You cherished every toy and immersed yourself in your imagination that grew from that interaction.
What we see is a room that is full to bursting with fun at that point where the kids have scarpered into their hiding places as the door opens, shining a warm light onto their toys and games. Can you really blame them? It’s impossible to sleep when you are wide awake with excitement. The longer that I worked on this piece, the more references that I added from being consumed with my memories as well as wanting to create the connection for you guys. It was about twelve hours into a very long day here and my bulldog George was sending me evils, when at the point of thinking I was finished, the title popped into my head. I was so pleased that it was so perfect, but it then amplified the concept of it being impossible to go to sleep and they were determined to stay up all night. This is where I then thought of the final random addition, a flat out ‘Alf’ soft toy being carried to bed by ‘Big Trak’! Random yes, fuelled by delirium in the studio and their bedroom but just demonstrates the annoying staying power of kids!
Have the batteries run out? Have they bollocks!
-
- Released: 2022
- Collection: Retrospective 4
- Edition Size: 45 +5AP
- Specification: Limited edition fine art print, hand signed by artist.
- Image Size: 25” x 18.5"
- Framed Size (Approx): 32.5” x 26"
-
- Get in touch for overseas delivery
- Please allow approximately 14 days for delivery, should you need delivery sooner please let us know.
Commissions
When workload allows Mark embraces client commissions and has enjoyed amazing success to date. If you have been inspired by the work that you have seen and have a specific idea or simply a seed then please do get in touch.
Commission EnquiriesRelated Items
Bollocks to Bedtime! - Canvas Limited Edition
£1,195.00
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Is there a more versatile or brilliant word that exists than ‘BOLLOCKS!’?! If there is then please share it. It’s funny, sometimes I feel choosing a title for a piece can be as hard as conceiving the concept for it. It’s the same for a song or movie title, it has to capture the mood and very essence of what has been created.
‘The Memory Remains’ was taken from a Metallica track that was on at the time yet was so perfect and has since been mentioned a few times! Sometimes the title becomes clear midway through the project, very rarely at the start. Yet this one was not until the very end, not that it was a bad thing.
The plan was always to create a nostalgia loaded image that pulled on the heart strings and was as cute as it was fun. The positioning of what you now see was always going to sit alongside ‘The Memory Remains’ series just like ‘Skool’s Out! 1 and 2 do, as they are all linked mainly through that initial day out to the toy shop, arcade, or cinema. However, the title couldn’t link to ‘The Memory Remains’ pieces as I wanted it to be able to viewed in its own right.
So, what started out as a challenge to find the perfect title moved away from something that could have been whimsical and warm to something so perfect as more and more toys were added to the bedroom. So, if those words were ever uttered by a child of that age, it without a doubt would have resulted in being sent straight to their room, but is that such a bad thing?! Just look at that room!
I know so many of you loved ‘The Memory Remains 2’ because of your affiliation with so many of the toys for sale within the toy shop and I hope you will fall in love with this piece just as much. So many of those toys have been bought and are laid out within the bedroom as well as so many cracking new additions that you may have forgotten about until now. ‘Bollocks to Bedtime’ is every big kids dream and is full to bursting with references that guarantees you will be saying ‘oh yeah I had one of those!’.
I wanted to capture that wonderful excitement that we had as a kid when we had so many toys that we truly loved, nothing compares to that era, our kids live in a very different world now. Not all bad of course but nothing will ever come close to the magic back then, amplified as I sit here with thoughts turning to Christmas and the utter brilliance of my memories as a kid around that time. You cherished every toy and immersed yourself in your imagination that grew from that interaction.
What we see is a room that is full to bursting with fun at that point where the kids have scarpered into their hiding places as the door opens, shining a warm light onto their toys and games. Can you really blame them? It’s impossible to sleep when you are wide awake with excitement. The longer that I worked on this piece, the more references that I added from being consumed with my memories as well as wanting to create the connection for you guys.
It was about twelve hours into a very long day here and my bulldog George was sending me evils, when at the point of thinking I was finished, the title popped into my head. I was so pleased that it was so perfect, but it then amplified the concept of it being impossible to go to sleep and they were determined to stay up all night. This is where I then thought of the final random addition, a flat out ‘Alf’ soft toy being carried to bed by ‘Big Trak’! Random yes, fuelled by delirium in the studio and their bedroom but just demonstrates the annoying staying power of kids!
Have the batteries run out? Have they bollocks!
-
- Released: 2022
- Collection: Retrospective 4
- Edition Size: 20 + 5AP
- Specification: Hand embellished heavyweight artist canvas, double framed, hand signed by artist.
- Image Size: 37” x 26"
- Framed Size (Approx): 41.5” x 32"
-
- Get in touch for overseas delivery
- Please allow approximately 14 days for delivery, should you need delivery sooner please let us know.
Bollocks to Bedtime! - Large Limited Edition
£445.00
-
Is there a more versatile or brilliant word that exists than ‘BOLLOCKS!’?! If there is then please share it. It’s funny, sometimes I feel choosing a title for a piece can be as hard as conceiving the concept for it. It’s the same for a song or movie title, it has to capture the mood and very essence of what has been created.
‘The Memory Remains’ was taken from a Metallica track that was on at the time yet was so perfect and has since been mentioned a few times! Sometimes the title becomes clear midway through the project, very rarely at the start. Yet this one was not until the very end, not that it was a bad thing.
The plan was always to create a nostalgia loaded image that pulled on the heart strings and was as cute as it was fun. The positioning of what you now see was always going to sit alongside ‘The Memory Remains’ series just like ‘Skool’s Out! 1 and 2 do, as they are all linked mainly through that initial day out to the toy shop, arcade, or cinema. However, the title couldn’t link to ‘The Memory Remains’ pieces as I wanted it to be able to viewed in its own right.
So, what started out as a challenge to find the perfect title moved away from something that could have been whimsical and warm to something so perfect as more and more toys were added to the bedroom. So, if those words were ever uttered by a child of that age, it without a doubt would have resulted in being sent straight to their room, but is that such a bad thing?! Just look at that room!
I know so many of you loved ‘The Memory Remains 2’ because of your affiliation with so many of the toys for sale within the toy shop and I hope you will fall in love with this piece just as much. So many of those toys have been bought and are laid out within the bedroom as well as so many cracking new additions that you may have forgotten about until now. ‘Bollocks to Bedtime’ is every big kids dream and is full to bursting with references that guarantees you will be saying ‘oh yeah I had one of those!’.
I wanted to capture that wonderful excitement that we had as a kid when we had so many toys that we truly loved, nothing compares to that era, our kids live in a very different world now. Not all bad of course but nothing will ever come close to the magic back then, amplified as I sit here with thoughts turning to Christmas and the utter brilliance of my memories as a kid around that time. You cherished every toy and immersed yourself in your imagination that grew from that interaction.
What we see is a room that is full to bursting with fun at that point where the kids have scarpered into their hiding places as the door opens, shining a warm light onto their toys and games. Can you really blame them? It’s impossible to sleep when you are wide awake with excitement. The longer that I worked on this piece, the more references that I added from being consumed with my memories as well as wanting to create the connection for you guys. It was about twelve hours into a very long day here and my bulldog George was sending me evils, when at the point of thinking I was finished, the title popped into my head. I was so pleased that it was so perfect, but it then amplified the concept of it being impossible to go to sleep and they were determined to stay up all night. This is where I then thought of the final random addition, a flat out ‘Alf’ soft toy being carried to bed by ‘Big Trak’! Random yes, fuelled by delirium in the studio and their bedroom but just demonstrates the annoying staying power of kids!
Have the batteries run out? Have they bollocks!
-
- Released: 2022
- Collection: Retrospective
- Edition Size: 20 +5AP
- Specification: Limited edition fine art print, hand signed by artist.
- Image Size: 32” x 24"
- Framed Size (Approx): 42” x 34"
-
- Get in touch for overseas delivery
- Please allow approximately 14 days for delivery, should you need delivery sooner please let us know.
Custom Framed Skool's Out! 2 - Standard Limited Edition 1PP
- So, as I write this narrative, it is a week or so into the summer holidays, my daughter is sunning herself in Spain and I’m watching the sheer frustration of my mate who is struggling to get his two young boys to do anything meaningful whilst he is sat with me having a cuppa. You would think that bringing a football and his boys to the studio grounds with a vast lawn, lake and woods would be a sure thing for them to have a great time but sadly no. Without their phones or tablets they don’t have any desire to be kids and go and play. Sad really. Whilst I appreciate that not all kids are like that, nor do I think every child wants to act out the adventures of the ‘Secret Seven’ or ‘The Famous Five’, it just reinforces to me just how things are so glaringly different for us when we where their age. Oh, the good old days eh!
It was an age where everything seemed so much more fun and when kids really played with freedom and imagination, and the only 'influencer' was the person who told you to be back for tea. So, when the bell rang out, it kick-started six weeks of scorched grass and grazed knees, grabbing your bike and having the absolute time of your life, day after day, and for the days when it rained, there was kids TV! Luckily our innocent little eyes were oblivious to 'Bungle' being a bit, well, dodgy! So where do you go when you've burnt your arse on that huge metal slide in the park?... To the Lido of course!
I have such vivid memories of my summer break from school as a kid growing up in the 80’s, is that because everything was bolder and brighter back then or because I, like you, really lived and loved every day. It is those days of being free and with your family and friends that stand out over any major holiday abroad. I lived close to a great park back then, the river was just down the ‘court’ from our house, and we were just a 5-minute train journey to our local outdoor swimming pool. It’s funny because I’m pretty sure that it didn’t look like what I’ve just created, but that’s the whole point isn’t it. Everything is always bigger and brighter when you reminisce.
The lido that you see within ‘Skool’s Out! 2’ is based on the iconic ‘Saltdean Lido in Brighton, primarily for its cracking architecture, I love how the community there have kick-started the renovations to bring it back to life. Secondly, the client who commissioned ‘The Memory Remains’ is from Brighton, so it continues the story where those toys went with their new owners. Like I said before, the holidays were all about being with your family and friends, so there are bikes everywhere and two deckchairs in view, one for you and one for your best mate. Toys and teddies are littering the Serengeti-esque grass and taking over the pool. I like to think differently, so I’m going to bet my ‘Fat Willy’s hat that this is the first time you’ve seen Humpty riding an inflatable flamingo!
I’ve thrown everything into this piece, it’s chaotic and wonderfully random and comes from such a great place. I never set out with a set list of references to include, and this is a cracking example of how, when you open your mind back up, you are overwhelmed with those little details that have remained dormant for years. It’s a piece that I didn’t want to stop but it had to or risk becoming like one of those ‘Where’s Wally’ jigsaws! I genuinely hope that my love for my childhood shines through here and that it stirs up so many amazing memories for you lot, my collectors are fucking brilliant, and we are all in this together. So, dive in, there’s no risk of verruca’s or floaters and heavy petting IS allowed here! -
- Released: 2022
- Collection: Retrospective
- Edition Size: 45 +5AP
- Specification: Limited edition fine art print, hand signed by artist.
- Image Size: 25” x 18.5"
- Framed Size (Approx): 32” x 26"
-
- Get in touch for overseas delivery
- Available for immediate despatch or collection