King of dirt

Acrylic on MDF board. 62x91cm. Completed 2000. Prints available.

Titled ‘King of Dirt’ after the contest series, this artwork features a BMX rider (TJ Lavin), mid-trick, over a big dirt jump. The scene is on Pier 17 in New York city! Photorealism is the only way such an image could be painted properly. This painting is where Mark first began to use the incredible power of a computer to manipulate the image before starting on the drawing.The image was changed to reduce the obvious curvature from the wide angle lens. The source was from Snap BMX magazine and the photographer was Keith Mulligan. This was the second BMX painting he completed.

Please note: There is an abstract painting titled The joy of listening to Miles Davis on the reverse side.

Drawing

Mark rarely documented his early work. This drawing shows the square grid of 25mm supplanted by another grid rotated 45 degrees. This was due to a need for the highest accuracy in drawing. Mark soon adopted a 1cm. grid.