Tyneside artist with celebrity fans like Sam Fender secures residency at London hotel

Mark Taylor, 43, from North Shields, was given this residency after impressing at The Royal Society of Marine Artists exhibition last year

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An artist from Tyneside with celebrity fans like Sam Fender and Duran Duran's Andy Taylor, has secured a residency at the prestigious London Marriott Hotel Canary Wharf.

Mark Taylor, from North Shields, was given the residency after he saw off competition worldwide to win a coveted spot in The Royal Society of Marine Artists exhibition last summer.

The 43 year-old's paintings of the River Tyne and the North Sea, on account of him moonlighting as an RNLI lifeboat skipper, have been very successful, but he is now turning his attention to the Thames, as he creates 13 mixed media paintings to launch his residency on the 13th of June.

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The canvases will explore Canary Wharf's commercial landscape from several angles, and will show how these buildings reflect on the surface of the Thames.

These vibrantly coloured designed will be collated with historic maps of the Isle of Dogs, perfectly capturing the juxtaposition between the present financial district and the river-based industry that was there previously.

Mark has spoken about working with the RNLI, the similarities between Tynemouth and London, and looking ahead to his upcoming residency.

"Rivers and water are in my blood, and through my work with RNLI I spend a vast amount of my time on the water and it features in virtually all my paintings.

"While London and Tynemouth are very different in a lot of ways, they have one key point of similarity, they each have a river, and those rivers are as central to the lives of the people that live there now as they were hundreds of years ago.

"I know that artist Lincoln Townley had a residency here and it absolutely catapulted his career to the next level, so if my residency is half as successful, I’ll be a very happy man."

To look at or purchase Mark's work, visit his website here.