These artworks are from a series of studies that inform larger paintings made in my studio at SET (Studios) in Vauxhall. Working on a small scale offers different challenges, particularly in terms of mark-making, allowing for a different approach to painterly (gestural) qualities. The colours selected for these paintings include Payne’s grey, olive green, Prussian blue and Cadmium Red Scarlet. The works explore pictorial space, light and the idea of place inspired by landscape. Memories and experiences of locations predominantly in the UK and Italy are key to the works. Certain artists are important influences upon the work, particularly Constable, Courbet, Cézanne and Monet, all leading innovators in the genre of landscape painting. Northern Light operates as a traditional landscape with a recessional space and horizon line, whereas the space in Pathway is more ambiguous, compressing the foreground and distant areas. The emphasis on materiality and painterly processes enables the work to explore abstraction, introducing expressive qualities.

For over thirty years, Wright’s work has been engaged with painting, moving between figuration and abstraction, largely informed by landscape and centred on technical, process and material concerns. This exploration has involved different supports, grounds and painterly elements. The works are informed by particular traditions and the work of key artists, including historical and contemporary examples. From a painterly perspective, concerns consistent within his practice are how pentimenti and facture operate within the work. These qualities have inspired him through seeing and studying the works of Tintoretto, Titian, Courbet and Cézanne, among others. The paintings are informed by lyrical abstraction and a neo-expressionist aesthetic, and his iconography explores natural and organic forms. Temporal ideas are key to the works, and he believes that an integral aspect of painting is its ability to engage viewers, requiring slow viewing as a counterpoint to the screen-based climate within contemporary culture.

Mark Wright studied at Central Saint Martins School of Art and the Royal College of Art, London. He held Fellowships at Winchester School of Art and Kent Institute of Art & Design, and was a founding member of Cubitt Gallery and Studios in 1991. He has exhibited widely in the UK and internationally, including at Spencer Brownstone Gallery, New York, Galeria Cadaqués, Spain, and Vivienne Roberts Projects, London. His work is held in collections including the Wellcome Trust, David Roberts Foundation, Dundee Museums Collection and Deutsche Bank. He has taught at several art schools and universities, most recently Loughborough, Brighton and Glasgow.