MARK PULSFORD

ARTIST

Mark Pulsford is a Scottish artist who currently lives and works in St Leonards-on-Sea in Sussex with his wife singer-songwriter and band leader Sarah Jane Morris. Pulsford studied at Edinburgh College of Art (1968-9) and under the tutelage of Carole Robb and Rose Wylie in Roy Oxlade’s department at Sittingbourne College in Kent (1972-5). His father was the artist and educationist Charles Pulsford 1912-1989.

His mother was the stained-glass designer Bronwen Gordon. His brother is the London-based painter Benedict Pulsford.

Mark Pulsford was born in Edinburgh in 1951, and still feels a close affinity to the city and culture of his origin. He has devoted himself to the practice and modalities of visual response, both as a teacher and in his own creative life. He has taught in secondary schools, in colleges of art (KIAD and London Metropolitan U) and as a founding faculty member of the Rome Art Program (2009-present).

In his own practice, he has developed an approach to mark-making which transcends the conventions of drawing, resulting in a singular visual language which may be viewed in the pages of this website.

Pareidolia-Max® is the registered trademark of Pulsford’s Paintings by Moonlight. ‘Pareidolia’ is a term which refers to a special category of illusionistic effect. In most cases, optical illusions are demonstrated in graphic form, whereby a closed or unvarying effect is demonstrated. Pareidolia is an open form of illusionism, in the sense of being open to imaginative interpretation.

In his studies ‘In the Presence of Tintoretto’ Pulsford demonstrates his knowledge of the Sixteenth Century master. Again, this knowledge may be judged a true singularity, for who, other than Pulsford, has spent many scores of hours engrossed in visual response in the presence of the masterworks at the Scuola Grande di San Rocco in Venice?

Pulsford’s project for lockdown (spring 2020) was the start of an essay in portraiture: Linear Heads – The John Martyn Drawings in which the legendary (and sadly deceased) singer/songwriter’s likenesses are made from archive photographs and film.

Children of the Moon is the title chosen for the much-postponed exhibition, finally to be realised in June ’21 (see below).

Recent and forthcoming exhibitions include:

Children of the Moon Boo’s Closet Gallery, Notting Hill 2nd – 6th June 2021
Paintings by Moonlight - Pareidolia-Max© Deferred due to Covid
In the Presence of Tintoretto Summerhall Edinburgh 2018
Uncompromised Horsebridge Whitstable 2016
Sweepings from the studio floor Horsebridge Whitstable 2015

Cinque Terre: two studies from Prevo looking towards Corniglia