Artists 

“The paintings and original prints are stimulated by nature, landscapes primitive power and energy, all its connotations of darkness and light.”

“The importance of an improvised and intuitive process opens images up to a haunting and mysterious quality outside of time.”

His influences include the English landscape artists, from the Norfolk school through Turner to the St. Ives School. Those from abroad include Rembrant and Whistler with their masterly use of light and atmospheric qualities along with more recent painters such as Cy Twombly, Antoni Tapies and Anselm Kiefer. Mark Johnston also pays a lot of respect to the 1950's abstract expressionists, in particular Franz Klein and his 1950–61 black and whites. (Paul Tierney, 2007)

In 1996, Mark was a Sussex Art Prize winner. He lived and painted in Barcelona and Greece during 1996–98. He now lives and works in Brighton.