mark bell

Mark Bell is a contemporary artist living and working in Brixham, Devon, creating vibrant, atmospheric paintings 

rich in movement, colour, and emotion.

Mark is an expressive figurative artist, working with instinct and immediacy. Through bold, intuitive marks and a use of vivid colour, his work radiates energy, light, and power. 

 Originally from South Tyneside, Mark graduated from Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design in 2000 with a degree in fashion design but was always a painter at heart. 

In 2007, Mark and his wife Sarah inadvertently founded what would become one of the UK’s leading independent burlesque and cabaret events. Beginning as pop-up shows across South Devon, Kinky & Quirky grew into full-scale theatre productions known for their inclusive, eclectic cabaret nights combining burlesque, comedy, live music and performance art.

In 2017, they opened The Lucky 7 Club, a vintage-style speakeasy dedicated to alternative arts programming in Torbay.

The Lucky 7 Club became Mark’s blank canvas.

 Extending his practice beyond traditional painting, he applied his visual language to stage design, backdrops, painted furniture and hand-crafted décor. Through upcycling, recycling, collected curios and immersive set-building, the venue evolved into a living, breathing artwork—constantly changing and shaped by performance, audience and atmosphere.

Music and dance have become central muses in Mark’s practice, with his work increasingly intersecting with

 performance culture and live, embodied forms of expression.

 I told my teacher at infant school that I wanted to be an artist.

I started out by not fitting in.

 I was drawn to outsiders, subcultures, and countercultures—my university dissertation was on David Bowie.

 I loved Tintoretto, Caravaggio, Freud, Picasso, and Turner—artists whose works are defined by 

drama, intensity, and turbulence.  I still love them.

I paint my feelings—my emotional responses to music, dance, sunsets, and nature. I want you to feel what I feel, hear what I hear, and see what I see. By exaggerating and distorting form and colour, I intensify the hypersensitivity that arises when immersed in music, movement, or the raw energy of a stormy shoreline. 

I paint tension and power: the coiled, taut strength of a dancer, the flow of energy around them, the imminent impact and collision, the heartbreak, the defiance, the surrender, the vulnerability. How can I convey these human conditions with 

paint, brushes, and palette knives?

I think about painting constantly—every shaft of light, gust of wind, the power of waves crashing.

 I think about how to encapsulate a piece of music: what colours, what brushstrokes will evoke the emotions I feel 

when lost in a spiralling John Coltrane solo. 

How can I paint the euphoria I feel when I dance? That feeling of being intrinsically connected to 

something so beautiful—how do I paint that?

My work moves between transcendence, euphoria, and dysphoria.

Painting makes me feel alive—at times frantic and invigorated, at others calm and blissful.

It is an emotional rollercoaster!