He helped define the world of contemporary illustration with paintings that combined abstraction with realism in a way that was expressive, elegant, and always surprising.
I met him at a gathering of artists hanging out at a convention hotel eating tacos and sipping beer. Even though he was well into his 80s when I met him, in his leather jacket, he looked like he was always in style.
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| Mark English in the lounge of the Kansas City Marriott, gouache. |
As I squeezed out my paint to sketch him, he told me he still had the gouache paints that he used in his illustration years, but he switched to painting larger canvases with house paint.
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| Mark English "Pink Patchy Face" |
In his later canvases, which he made for galleries, his images edged further into abstraction. He delighted in juxtapositions of colors, textures, and shapes that hinted at portraits but dissolved into an intriguing primordial stew.
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More about Mark English on the Illustration Art blog
One of the greatest illustrators to my eyes. Love his work for the imagination and design. He may be gone , but the wonderful work lives on.
ReplyDeleteI remember looking through all the Illustration Annuals and seeing so much of his wonderful work while I was in art school. He was inspiration for so many young illustrators like me. Thanks for sharing this.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this sad news, James. I might not have caught it otherwise. Mark English was a star when I was in illustration school also, one whom the instructors hardly needed to point out to us. His star shone so brightly that it could not be missed. Like Greg Preslicka, I remember poring over his work in the illustration annuals.
ReplyDeleteMark English is another one I whose work I loved and I too poured over his work in the illustration annuals, think I have a least a dozen of them. I was never really an illustrator, but did architectural renderings. Sad to hear.
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