mark payne

I have been passionately painting for 35 years. In many ways my fine art journey was supported by an early career in the pressured, competitive fields of media and publishing.


Reflecting on this time, I see the benefits it offered me as a painter, through a discipline of techniques, travel, and a degree of confidence to resume my initial desire to be a painter.


A few highlights of that early career are:


Working for the BBC U.K. on Children’s Television Programs
Winning an Australian Art Director’s Award,
Producing a series of Animations for European Television,
Being a represented Cartoonist in London and Illustrator of 40 children’s books for leading international Publishers.


When 3 of my paintings were selected for publication in a prestigious Japanese Art Coffee Table Book, it made me think...perhaps it was time to commit to the path of fine art. Since then I have been self-teaching the intricacies of painting.


Working in Europe gave me unique access to Eastern European Art Naif influence. I love painting in that joyful boundary- free way and sometimes accept property portrait commissions in that style (see 'The long Ride of Anne Dry').

Whilst painting in Cornwall I found a new audience quite by chance when a buyer from ‘The Friends of The Tate Gallery’ purchased a small painting. I began building a collection of paintings for exhibition. From those early days, my work has been exhibited in Galleries in England, USA and Australia.

I have been fortunate to have married a Gallery owner who has been my loyal consistent friend, supporter and most importantly a true ‘Muse’. She also has quite a successful, remarkable and diverse career path.

Today, home is in the beautiful Hepburn shire surrounded by a dramatic panorama of extinct volcanos. My studio is a sequestered room of an old Edwardian farmhouse brimming with canvases I stretch and a very healthy collection of paints, brushes and paint spattered easels. Heaven!