ARTIST INTERVIEW: MARK DRAISEY
Please can you give me an introduction about yourself.
After 30 plus years working as a freelance illustrator, cartoonist and caricaturist (Spitting Image) I made the switch to painting portraits around 2016. I work from my modest studio set up in my home in South Oxfordshire and have had several of my paintings exhibited in a variety of prestigious shows including the BP Award at the National Portrait Gallery, and the Royal Society of Portrait Painters at the Mall Galleries including two paintings in this year’s exhibition.
Describe your creative proces; from start to finish of a painting. Where do you find your inspiration?
I work primarily from photographic references that I take of each sitter which I then edit and create my final drawing from, as well as incorporating any mental notes I will have made about the sitter during our time together. That drawing is then transferred to my ‘canvas’, I actually paint on wooden panels these days, and then I begin the painting.
Jatinder
What is your favourite piece of work and why?
I tend not to get emotionally attached to my work but this one has received the most likes on Instagram, by a long way, and I am fond of it.
Jack
Who is your favourite artist and why? Do they have an influence on your work?
I learnt to paint portraits by copying several old masters, Sir Thomas Lawrence and Sir Anthony Van Dyke, and they still influence me today. I also like the work of Alastair Adams, John Singer Sargent, Henry Scott Tuke and Caravaggio.
Timothée Chalamet, actor
Why do you think art is important in society?
Art isn’t just about pretty pictures you might want to hang above your fireplace. Art informs us about things we may not have seen or experienced. It can shock us; make us laugh; enrage us; overwhelm us; fill us with a sense of peace or harmony; and even turn us on! The whole point of art, in all its forms, is to effect the way we feel when we’re stood in front of it. It really doesn’t matter if you don’t understand it provided you feel something. So many people in this country assume art is for the elite and far too high-brow for them, which is ridiculous. As a population we don’t experience art as much as we can or should. In Italy, whole families visit galleries as a regular day out, most weekends. Why don’t we?
https://markdraisey.com