Mark Hewatt

Author: Mark Hewatt

  • The Fire Behind

    The Fire Behind

    This latest piece continues my dive into folklore-inspired landscapes, using a rural backdrop to hold a quiet, unsettling moment. On the surface, it’s a familiar structure—a weathered wooden barn or outbuilding sitting at the edge of a field. But the narrative turns on the corner of that wall, where three pale, hooded figures stand in the shadows, peering past the wood toward a sudden burst of flame.

    Technically, this was built using a tight mix of acrylic pens, Sakura gel pens, and Faber-Castell Pitt pens on cold press paper. I wanted the architecture and the field to feel heavily textured, using dense, directional strokes to capture the rough grain of the wooden siding and the dry, standing grass.

    The atmospheric tension comes from the contrast in mark-making and color temperature. I used a stippling technique for the sky, layering blues, purples, and cool grays to give the canopy a vibrating, electric static. That cold background makes the hot oranges and yellows of the fire spill around the corner with real intensity, throwing the three specters into stark relief as they witness whatever is burning just out of sight.

    Leaving the source of the fire and the identity of the observers open-ended is the core of the piece. It frames a moment of quiet intrusion—where the mundane rural landscape breaks open to reveal a ritual or a reckoning.

    • The Fire Behind - Distance
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  • Relief Print: Moka Pot

    Relief Print: Moka Pot

    This recent piece is a sharp departure from my usual studio routine—an experimental reduction lino print of a classic moka pot. Relief printmaking is a medium I haven’t actively worked in for a very long time, making this a deliberate exercise in re-learning some lost skills.

    Reduction printing forces you to think entirely in reverse and in stages, carving away layers of the same linoleum block between color runs. For this trial, I pressed the inks onto a coarse, heavily textured handmade paper. The paper’s prominent tooth and organic surface grain deliberately fight the smooth coverage of the ink, leaving behind a raw, weathered texture that emphasizes the mechanical nature of the press.

    Stepping away from the precision of fine pens to wrestle with carving tools and ink rollers is a great reminder of how grounding it is to be a beginner again in a medium. It’s an untamed, physical process where you have to learn to embrace the friction and the happy accidents of the print.

    • Mocha Pot - Relief Print - Distance
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  • Lumbering Bier

    Lumbering Bier

    In this second installment of the series, our ambiguous land deity is no longer a distant silhouette on a ridge line. Here, the entity is a massive, lumbering presence actively moving across a raw, windswept field. I wanted to shift the atmosphere to something highly kinetic, capturing the restless friction of an old god traversing its domain while the grass churns around it.

    Technically, expanding this world required a dense mixed-media approach on cold press paper to handle the sheer volume of texture. I built the environment using a layered blend of Faber-Castell Pitt pens, Staedtler pigment pens, acrylic brushes, and Sakura gel pens.

    The process itself was highly rhythmic. I used the fine precision of the Staedtler and Pitt pens to map out the intricate, flowing lines of the prairie grass, mimicking the paths of the wind cutting across the earth. For the figure itself, I wanted a stark architectural contrast; its blocky, horned head is built with textured gray tones, while its heavy cloak is a dense thatch of deep crimson lines interwoven with pale, root-like fibers. The sky is composed entirely of meticulous stippling—thousands of individual dots of ink and acrylic that create a vibrating, static-like atmosphere above the field. The tooth of the cold press paper catches these distinct mediums differently, keeping the individual marks crisp while allowing the colors to optically blend into a restless, living landscape.

    There is a solemn, ritualistic quality to this giant form moving through the elements, acting as an ancient shepherd of the wild, untamed acres.

    • Lumbering Bier Distant
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    • 2607_Lumbering-Bier_Close1
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  • Sedge Walking

    Sedge Walking

    This pencil sketch is the first concrete concept for a new direction I’m exploring. The series centers on the quiet, ancient presence that occupies our fields and prairies, using a recurring horned entity as a narrative anchor. I’ve been drawing inspiration from the looming, watchful nature of old-world land spirits like the Leshen, mixing that folklore with the indifferent vastness of our own open plains.

    With this specific piece, titled Sedge Walking, I wanted to play with a very quiet, localized scale of cosmic ambiguity. On first glance, you see the entity cresting the far ridge line, surveying the landscape. But if you look closer at the foreground, tangled and collapsed beneath the rough blades of the sedge, there is a second figure.

    By pulling that detail into the frame, the entire relationship shifts. It moves the work into a space of forlorn loss and raises questions I have no intention of answering cleanly. Is this ancient presence an active participant in this person’s quiet end, or is it merely a cosmic custodian performing the final, silent funeral rites for what the earth reclaims? Is it a protector, or an accountant taking a cold inventory of the decay?

    Technically, keeping this in pure pencil on cold press paper allowed me to focus entirely on the texture and the weight of the environment. The fine, dense linework builds the chaotic grain of the grass, burying the foreground figure in a way that forces the viewer to slow down and actually look for the story. Future pieces will continue to track this entity—or the trailing remnants of its presence—through various field settings, establishing a running dialogue between the observer and the soil.

    • 2606_Sedge-Walking-Graphite-Distance
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    • 2606_Sedge-Walking-Graphite-Close2
  • Frenetic Canopy

    Frenetic Canopy

    I wanted to move away from the quiet, still qualities of a traditional landscape and focus entirely on energy. Nature is rarely static. It is constantly growing, decaying, and shifting. This piece was a deliberate experiment in capturing that hidden, frenetic activity—making a forest look as though it is writhing and moving right in front of you.

    Technically, this required a dense orchestration of different tools and medium behaviors on smooth hot press paper. I built the surface using a heavy blend of Faber-Castell Pitt pens, Staedtler pigment pens, acrylic pens, and Sakura gel pens.

    The process was rhythmic and intense. I used the fine precision of the Staedtler pens to create an intricate web of overlapping, high-contrast lines for the undergrowth and the tree trunks. The fine, colorful lines slashing through the foliage were accomplished with Sakura gel pens, giving those bright accents a sharp, clean edge. Instead of blending colors smoothly, I relied on rapid dashes and tight clusters of stippling with the acrylic and Pitt pens. By placing contrasting tones directly side-by-side—the electric greens against the deep purples and warm ochres—the canopy begins to optically vibrate.

    It is a chaotic way to build a landscape, but letting the marks layer over one another without correcting the friction gives the piece its pulse. It records the grit and the constant motion of the woods rather than a sanitized portrait of them.

    • Wall-with-frame
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  • Sells Mill: Late Winter Light

    Sells Mill: Late Winter Light

    here is a brief window at the end of winter where the landscape feels entirely transitional. The trees are still bare, but the light changes, catching the water and the earth differently. This study of Sells Mill was an attempt to record that specific, shifting energy.

    Technically, I’ve continued to explore the boundaries of my mixed-media approach on cold press paper. I used a combination of Faber-Castell Pitt pens, acrylic pens, and Sakura pens to build the scene layer by layer.

    The process is a deliberate balance between structured architecture and organic chaos. I used the fine precision of the Sakura and Pitt pens to draft the rigid lines of the historic mill and the dense, tangled thicket of branches in the foreground. For the sky, the water, and the stone façade, I leaned heavily into a pointillist technique. By applying thousands of individual dots of ink and acrylic, the surface begins to vibrate—allowing the cool blues of the late winter sky and the rushing stream to catch a sense of movement.

    The paper’s tooth works as a quiet partner here, holding the pigments exactly where they land but allowing the sheer volume of marks to optically blend. It’s a slow, rhythmic way to work that captures the texture of a place without forcing it into a sterile, perfect drawing.

    • 2606_Sells Mill in Late Winter - distance
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  • A Fragment of Departure

    A Fragment of Departure

    I wanted this piece to feel like a fragment of a larger, untold story. It is composed from the exact vantage point of an unknown observer looking through the brush, watching two figures stand at a crossroads on a path. You are witnessing a fleeting, high-stakes moment, but the context is deliberately stripped away. Is one figure looking back because they finally spotted you? Are they standing forlornly as someone else prepares to disappear into the heavy tree line? Or are they simply frozen in a moment of sharp indecision? Leaving those questions unanswered is the entire point; it forces the viewer to fill in the blanks.

    To build this sense of atmospheric suspense, I used a complex multi-medium approach on hot press paper. I started with an India ink wash to establish the deep, heavy values and the overall mood of the environment. From there, I used a mix of Pigma pens and Pitt pens to layer the finer, sharper architectural lines of the massive tree trunks and the dense foliage. I relied heavily on stippling in the canopy, using rapid dots of vibrant purple and green to make the air itself feel like it is vibrating. Finally, I used a white gel pen to pull out the stark, sharp highlights—catching the light on the foreground rocks, cattails, and the edges of the figures to create a punchy contrast against the dark background wash. By blending the fluid ink with the rigid precision of the pens, the process itself becomes a balance of control and chaos, keeping the image grounded in texture while letting the narrative remain completely elusive.

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    • 2606_A Fragment of Departure-close1
  • The Fence Line

    The Fence Line

    This is a small 6×9 study on cold press paper, born from an interest in the quiet friction between the ordinary and the unknown. On the surface, it’s a mundane rural scene—a sunlit field, a line of dense green trees, and a weathered wooden fence stretching across the frame.

    I built the composition using Faber-Castell Pitt pens and acrylic. The cold press texture acts as a partner in the process, catching the ink and stippled marks to build up the fields of color without losing the organic feel of the paper. I wanted the sky and the foreground greenery to feel alive, using rapid dots of pigment that make the light shimmer across the canvas.

    The real shift in the piece comes with the shaded figure standing in the foreground field. By placing this dark, silhouetted form right against the fence line, a simple landscape transforms into a moment of mystery. It introduces a narrative element without over-explaining itself, leaving the viewer to wonder who is standing by the field, and why.

    • Wall-with-frame
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  • The Yellow Hat

    The Yellow Hat

    Today I am sharing a new multi-media piece that continues to push the boundaries of my recent experiments with pointillism, but with a distinct narrative twist.

    This piece, based on an older photograph of a dense tree line and brush, relies on a highly textured mix of India ink, acrylic pens, and Pigma fine liners. To capture the thick, almost claustrophobic atmosphere of the undergrowth, I combined sharp, vertical scratches for the tall grass with heavy, vibrating dots of color. The optical mixing of the bright yellows and oranges in the foreground against the deep, heavy purples and blacks of the background gives the entire scene a buzzing, nocturnal energy.

    But this isn’t just a landscape study. If you look closely at the middle-right side of the composition, tucked away in the tall grass, there is a cloaked figure wearing a wide-brimmed yellow hat.

    I rendered this figure using the exact same pointillist and linework techniques as the surrounding environment, perfectly camouflaging them into the brush. Much of my work centers around the idea of being a “quiet observer” in rural, forgotten spaces. With this piece, I wanted to flip that dynamic. It introduces a subtle, eerie, Southern Gothic narrative—a reminder that when you are out observing the quiet edges of the world, sometimes you are also being observed.

    • The Yellow Hat - Distant
    • The Yellow Hat - Close1
    • The Yellow Hat Close2
    • The Yellow Hat Close3
  • The Yellow Patio

    The Yellow Patio

    Today I am sharing a new graphic piece titled “The Yellow Patio.” The title is intentionally a bit on the nose—an ironic nod to a cheerful early spring setting that actually masks the heavier, psychological weight of the scene.

    Based on a reference photo of a small bistro area, this piece gave me the opportunity to lean heavily into a Synthetist, graphic style of color blocking. The composition is built entirely on the boundary between light and dark, inside and outside. To translate the intense feeling of that boundary, I used deep, unnatural blues and heavy purples to anchor the foreground shadows, which perfectly frame the harsh, acidic, vibrating yellow of the sunlight hitting the concrete floor.

    This piece ties directly into the theme of the “quiet observer” that runs through much of my work. By placing the viewer firmly within the cold shadow, looking out past the empty iron chairs toward a lone, distant figure beyond the fence, it creates a distinct sense of isolation and voyeurism. It’s a moment of being entirely separated from the warmth and the outside world, suspended in bold, flat color.

    Technical Details:

    • 9×12 140lb hot press
    • Sakura fine liners
    • India ink

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