Mark Davies

‘Mark Davies breathes new life into your favourite stories by providing the light you cannot find in the darkness and shining darkness into the light.’
(GQ Magazine)

Bedford-born (1978) future contemporary digital/mixed media/photo-realism artist, Mark Davies spent his formative years in the East of England, and it was in this corner of his native UK that he chose to further his rudimentary art education after winning a place on a Fine Art course at a Cambridgeshire-based creative institution. Having been fascinated with some of the world’s best-told tales as a child, Davies grew up knowing that he wished to artistically interpret elements of iconic fables by the likes of the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson; the eloquence of whose stories inspired him from the outset.

But before Davies could fly, creatively-speaking he knew he needed to learn to walk, illustratively; and so began his compositional journey in the guise of a graphic designer. Not just any regional designer, we hasten to add though, as Davies quickly rose through the acknowledged ranks to become recognised as one of the area’s most successful graphic design studios. As co-founder of this studio, Davies’ design agency is allowed to thrive, and subsequently his seemingly boundless creativity has been channelled to best suit the needs of his front-of-house business. What undoubtedly helps Davies achieve this is the mantra that for his art, there is no brief in which to adhere to; nor any brand guidelines as such. Therein his graphic design studio affords him the opportunity to truly express himself , which is quite a rarity.

Despite Davies’ work now relying on cutting-edge modern technology to help him achieve his dreams, ironically he persevered with the pencil and brush, and resolutely ignored the emerging iMacs that were steadily creeping into his college set-up when a student; admitting in later times how to his mind he couldn’t see how a machine could truly translate my style and thinking onto screen. But then Davies finally succumbed and in the aftermath of what he describes as; “Locking myself in a room and learning what this brightly coloured plastic and glass kit could do” 15 years later he developed a technique through sustained experience in high-end photo retouching to allow him to put ideas and mediums to a different use.

Working out of a converted brick barn discovered within rural Cambridgeshire, Davies speaks of having always strived to create art which is rich in meaning and which conveys genuine substance from every perspective. It’s his prerogative and creative calling to imagine and produce compositional pieces which reflect his thoughts and emotions, and typically he draws on life experiences as a habitual starting point to his unique studies. Although originally educated in the more conventional forms and functions historically associated with fine art, Davies has moved with the times and ensured that he’s kept himself abreast of industry developments for both his and business ends.

Ergo Davies has seen his career evolve to take on-board a more digital approach to his art (as mentioned above), therein mastering the use and applications of colour, light and texture with every highly illustrative piece. With this in mind, Davies tells of “Enjoying creating a piece that on first glance looks fun, but then if you look again you get the underlying sentiment or concept”. Taking inspiration from both the works and indeed, lives of undisputed creative heavyweights of their days and chosen genres, Davies admits to been influenced by the universally celebrated likes of Piero Della Francesca, Giuseppe Arcimboldo and a certain Salvador Dali.

Eventually taking the plunge to become a full-time professional artist in 2014, Davies was encouraged in no small part by the reverence he received towards his graphic work, nationally. Today he has built a reputation for producing visual works which fuse stunning imagery with strong narratives, which hitherto reached a portfolio crescendo with the revealing of his sublime 2015 ‘Storyteller’ collection. Here and now Davies continues to graphically startle and narratively entertain with his very latest compositional releases.