Hadouken - The Original
- I have and always will be absolutely shit at ‘Streetfighter 2’, I took so many beatings. I studied the small print to try and master the moves but my tactic just resorted to pressing every button I could as quickly as I could. My favourite was always Blanca, what a beast! I loved Dhalsim – he was like a double-hard Inspector Gadget. I despised Ken, arrogant as hell but he could do the ‘Hadouken’ like no other, so he had to take on Blanca one more time, oh and his crisp red outfit complemented my beast’s mane so the stage was set. FIGHT!
My brother had a NES, I was useless at ‘Duck Hunt’ so I stuck to ‘Paperboy’ on the Amiga. My mate John had a SNES and ‘Streetfighter 2’, he was great at it – why was I so bloody useless? I loved the game, a million miles away from ‘Potty Pigeon’! I think I did improve, slightly but would always get slapped down by the fatty in the nappy or my head kicked off by a screeching girl.
Yet ignoring my pitiful displays my memories I take from this game far outweigh the embarrassment and I loved creating this piece. Has it made me want to get back involved with the game? Yes. Will I be any better now we have the use of the internet ‘how to’ videos? No chance! It has made me think back to quality time with quality life-long mates who I know more than ever that I need to make time to see them more, different world, new battles, same characters.
The original plan for this was to create a really gritty market scene and have the characters fighting amongst it but after seeing the vibrancy of the ‘Masters Of The Universe’ piece I changed direction and chose to use a backdrop of a stunning temple where the full spectrum of colours could be embraced and amplified. So, what you see is actually brutal yet beautiful, something that I have often embraced in darker pieces where we consider the negative as an art form and a thing of beauty through striving to master ones’ skill.
I also always intended to overlay the scene with gameplay screen details such as the ‘life bar’ and scores but I decided against this once I saw how intense and real the scene had become and it really felt like you were stood there watching the fight unfold rather than simply playing a game. This is the very quality that I hoped to achieve where you are using every bit of your imagination to really live the moment. I am so pleased with the end result that it has 100% created the platform for exciting developments… Round Two!
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- Released: 2019
- Collection: Retrospective
- Specification: Limited edition fine art print, hand signed by artist.
- Image Size: 48” x 36"
- Framed Size (Approx): 54” x 41"
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- 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
A Way of Life (Black & White) - Original
£4,850.00
- When setting out on planning my ‘Retrospective’ collection my intention was always to give music a strong presence as it is so often the catalyst that ignites a memory no matter how far down that resides.
I absolutely bloody love music, it has always had and always will have a huge influence in my art. I need music to set me free, to let me bleed. I love how an allegiance to a group can completely dominate the music you listen to, the clothes you wear and the wheels that you ride in on. I love how it becomes so much greater than the sum of it’s parts, how it takes over and becomes a way of life. ‘Quadrophenia’ has long been on the list of films to tackle for me, it was simply about timing.
The cult groups of the Mods and Rockers are so iconic and seeing as though the subject matter has been ‘done to death’ and largely in the same way I wanted to do something a little different. I won’t profess to belonging to either of the two. I can’t ride a motorbike or a scooter, the closest I came was getting a bone-shaking ‘backy’ over the freshly ploughed fields of Great Barford as a kid and holding on to my mate’s big brothers motorbike as I rode back home on my Peugeot racer bike as he accelerated to the point that my tyres glowed a brighter red than all 4 cheeks. Yet my partner is desperate to own a Vespa so that’s good enough for me.
Research is a big part of the planning and the key detail that kept coming up was the ‘Battle of Brighton’ where the two groups caused havoc. That got me thinking, I focused on the pure passion that both sides had for their own whilst also the dislike they also held for their rivals. As Paula Abdul once told me, opposites attract so that was my hook for this piece. What we see is the moment where two people, a Mod and a Rocker choose to meet and defy the rules to be together. Whether that be a courting couple or just mates is up to you but I love the sentiment, like a modern take on Romeo and Juliet, possibly. A sweet sacrifice.
This image is all about what you don’t see that makes it so personal. I wanted to create a beautiful piece of art yet one that has an edge to it. I love how the lighting completely changes everything, unifying all of the elements. I love the calmness, the warmth, the sense of a new dawn breaking and a moment cherished. Love will always find a way.
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- Released: 2023
- Collection: Retrospective
- Edition Size: 1 of 1 Original
- Specification: Mixed media original piece, hand signed by artist.
- Image Size: 48” x 36"
- Framed Size (Approx): 54” x 41"
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- Get in touch for overseas delivery
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Available for immediate despatch!
GLASTO! - The Original
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Is there a more epic and celebrated music festival than Glastonbury? Personally, nothing comes anywhere near it and that’s coming from someone who’s never managed to get a bloody ticket for the damned thing! The history of the festival is fascinating, set within the iconic Worthy Farm amongst the Somerset hills and under the watch of Glastonbury Tor. The music, entertainment and people are as diverse as what Mother Nature serves up each year.
For those who follow my work you will know that music is a catalyst and always the backdrop for my artworks, inspiring a concept, adding fuel to the fire of emotion that drives it or twisting lyrics to amplify what I am conveying. Art is everything, music is everything, they are how I bleed and how ultimately, I heal. It acts as a crutch, a comfort blanket, a shot of adrenaline.
A song can position you, to take you back to a time when things were great or not so great. For me, large parts of Glastonbury remind me when things were incredibly dark and challenging, times that I have fought to move clear from. For that weekend, watching hours and hours of the festival was a chance to escape and I loved every minute of it and was always gutted when it was over.
So many will have their own favourite memories from those who owned the stage, Metallica in 2014 was just stunning for a metal fan to see them smash it. Radiohead’s set in 1997 was beautiful, Paolo Nutini’s ‘Iron Sky’ lives long in the memory whilst the brilliant Foals set kickstarted my love for another great band who I wasn’t aware of before the festival. It’s always great to see the controversy surrounding some of the headliners and then watching them confirm why they deserve a place on the pyramid – all hail Stormzy!
In 2019 I set about planning how I could celebrate Glastonbury turning 50, to see it then cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic was gutting whilst naturally completely appropriate. I continued regardless and what you now see is an image that showcases each and every one of the headliners since T-Rex kicked things off in 1970. Music brings people together; Glastonbury brings people together and my piece ‘GLASTO!’ brings artists together for one hell of a session!
The iconic Ribbon Tower and Pyramid stage sit in front of the silhouetted hills as the sun sets or rises depending on how you see it. I wanted to capture the energy and passion as they perform together whilst also conveying that wonderful sense of calm after overdoing it. A fire is the centre piece to bring people together and to reminisce, the magical details that radiate out from the flames and fill the scene signify this as the fuel for stirring and reigniting memories, some to keep close, others to set free.
I hope you love this piece as much as I have loved creating it and I hope that it pulls at your heart strings, whilst doing justice to the phenomenal work by Michael and Emily Eavis. Nothing can stand up to the live festival but I’m pretty confident ‘GLASTO!’ can give you hours of entertainment trying to tick off all of the hidden headline acts. So, grab a drink and your wellies and enjoy the spirit of Glastonbury, I predict a riot! -
- Released: 2020
- Collection: Retrospective
- Specification: 1 of 1 original
- Image Size: 48” x 36"
- Framed Size (Approx): 54” x 41"
I Have The Power - The Original
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This piece has been absolutely brilliant to work on, excuse the pun but I have toyed with putting my stamp on the ‘Masters Of The Universe’ for a good while now and the recent move to include characters within my pieces (more on the rationale behind that to follow in 2020) provided the perfect platform for me to do something special and do justice to such an iconic and much-loved story.
My aspiration is to fuel one’s imagination through the images that I create, to amplify the qualities and to stir the senses and to take you back to a period that is so special for so many and for some many reasons. It is this ability that I have built a reputation for that I have wanted to exploit in this collection and if by adding characters within the scene takes the piece to another level then why not.
What I am conveying through this piece is how we saw things as a child playing with these toys, where we truly used our imagination to play. We may have been setting He-Man and his companions out on the shag pile carpet or on the kitchen table but in our head we were in Eternia and we weren’t leaving until it was time for dinner!
I wish I had my toys still but I, along with my Brothers and Sister played the hell out of them so they ended up in the ‘Sandy Sunshine playgroup’ jumble stall. A low point was playing with the Sorceress (ooh err) on De-Panne beach and being called back for a ride on the go-carts and forgetting the winged beauty only to return to see the tide take her away. MERDE!
Castle Grayskull was one of the best, if not the best toys I owned, damn it brings it all back just thinking about it! This piece was always going to focus on it, with the aim of building a magical landscape that I have done so many times throughout my ‘Storyteller’ works but then take it to a different direction by showing what I so often eluded to, yet maintaining integrity and not buggering about with them and making them into something that they weren’t and instead making them come to life, to be less plastic. Through my signature lighting style and the magical detailing that I inject, these iconic action figures are hopefully as you pictured them. Anyone else have a possessed Ram Man? Mine seemed to always aim his leap straight into my bloody Nesquik!
This collection was always intended to be fun, to feel great looking back with the aim to look forward and I have done exactly that. It has been great fun, this piece especially as it was the first one where I moved into something completely different and I have every intention of building on that in future works. ‘Hadouken’ (Streetfighter 2) is a further example on how this has worked so well – so this is just Round One! Look within ‘The Memory Remains 2’ toyshop for a clue as to what could follow up ‘I Have The Power’ next year.
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- Released: 2019
- Collection: Retrospective
- Specification: Limited edition fine art print, hand signed by artist.
- Image Size: 48” x 36"
- Framed Size (Approx): 54” x 41"
-
- Get in touch for overseas delivery
- Please allow approximately 14 days for delivery, should you need delivery sooner please let us know.