ARTISTS BIO

Mark is a typical creative butterfly and a polymath at heart. Over the years he has written books, made art and composed music. He is fascinated by history. Discovered people that have dared to dream and turned his fascination of old buildings and geology, into making pigments, that appear in many of his artworks. Many moons ago, he dared to dream of fusing classical and rock music but it was not to be.

For a little while he followed his family wishes in doing proper jobs while teaching himself art. After loosing his job as a bus driver he lived in a car traveling around the country creating hundreds of house portraits from cottages and farms to castles and stately homes. Over the years his work has developed from pen and ink work to mixed media. From architectural portraits and visual biographies, to powerful images of space interlaced with music.

Early Years

Mark Hilsden is a self taught artist, who specialises in creating architectural portraits, visual biographies, and paintings that tell stories about life well lived and dreamers. 

Many moons ago in his first job he worked with Christies the Fine Art Auctioneers and decided to dedicate his life to emulate the old masters in creating artworks of pure perfection. 

However, life got in the way.

Art of Bus Driving

He then mastered the art of driving buses, while dreaming of greater things. In his late twenties, he moved to the historical city of Lancaster. Inspired by his surroundings, he started to draw the countryside and the historic buildings he discovered there.

A Growing Fascination with Colour

His work incorporates detailed line drawings, with layers of pigments in a contemporary manner, paying similar attention to detail as traditional masters. 

In the process, he taught himself to make pigments from natural resources, and making his own paints in the studio. Just as the old masters did several hundred years ago. Each picture carefully crafted, fuses his fascination with the past alongside the present to make magical images.

The Studio

Today, with his wife they have a studio and shop at the Colour Makers House in Appleby in Westmorland. Its a small market town, surrounded by inspirational countryside bordered by the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales in an area were the border between Scotland and England has been decidedly fluid over the centuries.

The studio is built in a narrow Wiend that was part of the medieval defences and was rebuilt in 1677 over the foundations of a medieval hall house. The building has inspired him to write a novel that is due be released in May 20124.