Untitled Drawing

Born in London in 1966. After living in Leighton Buzzard for awhile, I moved to Northampton, England in 2003.Being an rebellious teenager, I dropped out of Art education (found the teachers boring!). It took me another twenty years before picking up the paint brushes again, at the ripe old age of 36.Although I'm in full-time employment (if I tried to live off the money I make out of my Art, I would be staring at the roots of a few weeds by now!) my heart and mind will always be in my Art; I just hope one day to give other people the same pleasure from my paintings, that I receive from creating them.MARK NEWTONThe Animal Within. We are animals that have learnt to behave.Through art, Mark is exploring the connections and separations between our primal mindset and the forms of sexual expression that exist in contemporary life. Who we are, the person that is presented to the outside world may be far removed from the person that lies within us. I think that it is generally accepted that there are two aspects to who we are: The outer person, the one that has learnt to co-exist through following rules, through moral judgements and understanding on how we should perform as a human in the complex structure of modern life. Then there is the other side to us all the shadow self the side of us which is a mindset born out of mental stimulation, thoughts, desires and passions in the search for self expression.Although Marks work is at times very graphical in expressing the sexual experience, it stops short of being pornographic. The primitive style to his approach dilutes the human aspects to the sexual theme. His art peels away our protective shell and asks us to question our own experiences, and the desires for sex we hold in our minds. The figures in his work are neither human nor animal, more a hybrid of the two, which strengthens his message that the human harbours an animal within.It has been a long time since we took those first steps away from the cave and evolved into the complex representation of the human species we are today, yet, the animal mindset that works and reacts to the instinct still walks around in our psyche. Whatever the reality of our sexual experience, the thoughts and desires for sexual gratification can be far stronger.