Mark Kaiser

Mark Kaiser was born in 1971 to Polish parents and has been painting and drawing from the age of three. He studied Design and Illustration at Suffolk University and graduated in 1992 with a BA (Hons) 2:1. In the summer after graduation he was contacted by EMI Records who were particularly interested in an illustration he'd created out of burnt Chinese newspapers and this was subsequently seen by the up-and-coming band Radiohead who wanted to entitle their EP 'Chinese Burn'. The band loved it and exhibited the finished illustration in their house.

In 1995 Mark was commissioned along with his twin brother, Paul to produce a huge Renaissance-style painting on the altar wall of the Polish Church in Kidderminster . After many months of research, studying the work of the Great Masters in the National Gallery and talking to scenery painters in the West End, the painting was started. The whole experience gave them a taste of what life was like for Michelangelo working up on the scaffolding for hours on end. Two years later the project was complete and the painting featured on Central News and was visited by an Archbishop from The Vatican.

He lives in Warwickshire with his wife Ania, and paints from a studio filled with travel books. From an early age Mark was inspired by Eastern European and American folk art and was exposed to Polish, Czech and Hungarian folk story-books containing imaginative illustrations. He was also very infused by the creative, animated world of Dr Seuss. Among his artistic inspirations are Sisley, Grandma Moses, Monet, Klimt, Wallis and Gauguin. Ania is also an inspiration and features in many paintings.

Since 2000 his work has been exhibited at the Artistic License Gallery in Primrose Hill, London and he has exhibited at the Affordable Art Fair in Battersea in the last three years. Both exhibitions were near sell-outs and he received a commission to illustrate The Wine Society's Autumn Wine List for October 02 - February 03. This was a great opportunity to show his work to a wider audience and it lead to many private commissions. Publishers of fine art prints have been in contact with Mark and are looking to collaborate in the near future on producing prints of his work. His paintings are now in private collections in the U.K, the United States, Germany and Poland .
He says: "I paint from memories of places that I have been to, of people that I've met and atmospheres that have stuck in my mind. I'm interested in architecture and also the human need to call a place 'home'. I like to put in characters to make a painting more colourful, even if it is someone on a blue tractor. The sheer fact that they're driving a blue tractor makes them a character. Commissioned paintings usually contain the particular collector(s) as characters within the paintings. Each painting carries it's own atmosphere through the colour, light, people, and background. There are calming moods, carnival atmospheres or simply subdued moods. I have this thing about perspective and sometimes we just don't get on. So I create what feels right, not always what the laws of perspective might say. I find watching holiday programmes expands my imagination and I paint places I'd like to visit one day."
"An important thing I've learned is to paint from the heart.
Learn from the Masters, but paint as yourself."