Mark Anstis

I am from New Zealand and am currently living in Edinburgh.

I am interested in understanding and portraying the human figure. I am fascinated by the challenge of expressing the personality and emotion of a subject behind a physical likeness.

I greatly admire many of the portrait and figurative painters of the 18th and 19th centuries, not just for the mastery of their craft, but also for their naturalism and sensitivity to human expression. I endeavor to try and apply this same feeling to my own work in a contemporary fashion.

The Florence Academy of Art, Italy

Massey University School of Design, New Zealand

I am a twice finalist of New Zealand's Molly Morpeth Canady Art Award, and was also a Merit Award Winner in 2016. I was also selected as a finalist for the W. Gordon Smith Award for painting in Scotland.