Description
Mark Demsteader – Moorland – Book by Nick Brown OBE
Mark Demsteader – Moorland – Book by Nick Brown OBE, 180 Pages – Softcover, fully illustrated.
Size: 30 x 25 cm
Postage & Packing Cost – £4 to UK
International Shipping – £10
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Moorland
Mark Demsteader is one of the UK’s most distinctive, internationally admired and collected British artists with an avid following across the world including a range of celebrities as diverse as Jim Ratcliffe and Nicholas Cage. He has been approached by many famous names for private commissions and portraits, one of whom, Emma Watson, described him as her favourite artist.
There is a huge demand for his work, partly owing to his tendency to destroy any work which he feels fails to deliver the feeling he intended. Many beautiful works have never survived to see the light of day.
Despite this very little is known about him and almost nothing has been written. This is largely because, as an outsider to the world of art, he keeps his life private, living on the edge of the Saddleworth moors and keeping to himself and avoiding publicity.
In 2019 he agreed to collaborate with Cheshire Art Gallery on his first book and a film for which he would demonstrate his technique and tell the fascinating story of his gruelling path to artistic success following being denied the opportunity of a place in art college due to family pressure and instead being sent to work in a meat market. During this time, he spent his evenings in art galleries or drawing classes perfecting the technique which has led to his work being described as having
‘a deeply rich and brooding atmosphere creating figurative/ abstract works with an almost Pre- Raphaelite sensibility.’
The paintings and drawings combine elements of the Old Masters with a deeply felt sense of the brooding landscape of the moors from which he draws his inspiration. Once seen these works are never forgotten and transform any room within which they hang.
Cheshire Art Gallery, which has for many years worked closely with Mark, commissioned Nick Brown OBE, FRSA, Patron of Manchester Academy of Fine Art, the biographer of Geoffrey Key and author of two series of novels, to write the biography of Mark Demsteader and tell his story for the first time.
To accompany the book, due to be launched at the Manchester Art Fair in the autumn of 2024 Cheshire Art also commissioned GMVisuals for a film of the artist at work in which he talks candidly of his struggles and successes.
Enjoy!
Nick Brown OBE, FRSA, AW