Mark Elliot Smith

2006 BA (Hons) Fine Art University Plymouth
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Mark Elliott Smith's work explores the realms of suggestive, enigmatic apparitions. His large abstract canvases are worked in pure colours with vivid, clean edged forms, and playful and energetic elements, creating a dynamic illusion of three dimensions through the placement of form and colour. The paintings are meticulously and systematically hand-painted in flat, crisp colour, and animate space with a stimulating affect of movement and vivacity, imparting an energising, positive sense of possibility.
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Mark’s paintings have their own rhythm, flow and emotion as he takes inspiration from his childhood drawings, dance and costume, mediaeval art, and his response to music.

By collaging initial marks into a structure with a sense of dynamic unity and balance, he builds images which are analogues of the process of construction and destruction, fragmentation and coherence. The process of painting reveals and amplifies previously hidden information, both visual and psychological. Mark’s neurodivergent approach gives him a unique window on the world, seeing thoughts and ideas as patterns which translate to some kind of narrative beyond the viewer’s conscious grasp.

The titles of his paintings, though they parallel rather than describe the work, are precise and are chosen to function as micro-poems analogous to the images as they emerge.

Mark creates work which brings something new to abstraction, allowing people to see their own story, while keeping a consistent vibrant playfulness. His paintings investigate formal relationships of colour and shape and their potential for emotional affect, and examine the capacity of art to animate a space in a positive way.