Mark Bowman

Mark’s background as a projects manager, working on a wide range of construction projects across the UK set him up for a lifetime of experiment, investigation and practice. In addition, he spent his spare time teaching himself to carve stone and wood and a year working in an artist’s blacksmith's forge. An eight year period working on off-shore oil rigs followed, where creativity and problem solving were always present in some form or other and he found interest in the most mundane design solutions and beauty in some of the most complex. ‘The spectacle of huge industrial structures and the violence of extreme conditions has probably left brutalist fingerprints on my creative consciousness, but I feel I remain a fairly organic creature at heart’.

Over the years Mark has experimented with many different materials including aerated concrete, laminated ply, lead, slate and sandstone. His use of plywood is particularly inventive. ‘Sometimes I’ll have a specific idea that I want to develop which I think would be best executed in a particular medium or I might use material that I happen to have available and which I like the look of. I love the freedom to be able to choose a medium on a whim.’

Living and working in rural Northumberland...

Self taught

Doddington Hall and gardens - Sculpture at Doddington Hall 2024

Cotswold Sculpture Association - Creating Spaces 24

The Cotswold Sculpture Park - Summer Exhibition 2024

Moncrieff-Bray Gallery, West Sussex - Summer Exhibition 2024

The Sculpture Gallery, Leeds - Guest Artist April 2024

Royal Scottish Academy - 197th Annual exhibition 2023 - Awarded Open Exhibition prize

Cotswold Sculpture Association - Creating Spaces 2023

Great Northern Art Show 2022 - Awarded "Best Body of Work"

Cotswold Sculpture Association - Creating Spaces 2022 - Awarded "Peoples Choice"