"With his flashes of color, flawless drawing and dynamic design Mark has created a picture with a spirited immediacy that puts us right in the chaos of the moment. The fantastic slashing strokes excite the imagination and show how great painting can open our eyes to the beauty of the world in the most unlikely places."
Congratulations Mark!
To view Mark Bailey's current works at our gallery, please visit our website.
December 2011
portrait/figure
Third Place
Mark Andrew Bailey
Vancouver, Washington
The title, In the Weeds, is a term restaurant workers use when the kitchen goes crazy trying to keep up with orders. Such scenes, rife with tension and energy, are what Mark Bailey most likes to paint. He prefers painting from life, but with this scene, there was no way. The setting is the kitchen of Basil Thai Restaurant in Charleston, South Carolina. “My objective was to capture the light, color and energy of a fleeting moment,” says Bailey. “For paintings like this, I take as many photos as I can in order to really get an idea of the place and have several images to pull from. Sometimes I jot down color and lighting notes of things that might get lost in photographs.” Bailey, in his 20s, places himself at the beginning of his career, still developing his process. He works in transparent layers, first blocking in major shapes and then breaking them down. “I remind myself that nothing’s sacred—that I shouldn’t be afraid to mess something up,” he says. “Sometimes I’ll take a broad brush and paint over a ‘finished’ area or scrape if off entirely. As scary as that is at the moment, that area usually ends up being far more interesting.”
