When she finished high school, Mark applied successfully – in fact she was awarded a scholarship – to The Australian National University School of Art (now the School of Art & Design).

“It was the best time of my life and very exciting. The faculty was amazing – Ruth Waller was head of painting and Jude Rae was artist-in-residence during my first year.  The arts faculty really nurtured traditional figurative painting and gave us the skills to paint confidently for still life, landscape, life painting, portraits – and, from that foundation, encouraged us to explore abstraction and other methods of making.”

Mark spent two years at ANU and then transferred to the National Art School in Sydney to finish her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree.  She decided to continue her studies at the National Art School and in 2018 graduated with a Master of Fine Arts in painting.

Mark soon realised what genre she was drawn to.

“I loved painting from observation and in around my third year of art school I decided to focus my energies into still life. It was very accessible for me to paint from life continually. I didn’t need a studio. I could do it anywhere, have a very simple set up and always be able to work. I didn’t need to worry about finding someone to sit for me and with landscape painting, while I liked working outside, I also like to be comfortable and cosy – not in the wind and the elements!”

Mark also believed that focusing on still life would help her to support herself as an artist – although she would always need to do some other work. For this reason, she describes her decision to choose still life as “a strategic move”.

The Australian painter Jude Rae has been a strong influence on Mark. She has also been inspired by the still life paintings of the 18^th century French artist Jean Siméon Chardin whose works she describes as “understated, simple, moody, very tonal”. Mark also admired works by the Italian painter Gorgio Morandi that she discovered in the Art Gallery of NSW. She later learned that Chardin had been a significant influence on Morandi.

Asked to describe the development of her practice, Mark replies that she has always been drawn to light and tonality in her painting.

“My earlier paintings were quite dark and moody – I used a very traditional tonal palette when I was learning. Over time I became interested in exploring all aspects of light and that included intense colour. For a while I did bright, highly saturated, colourful works. Now I am moving back to a darker, more natural colour palette.”

Mark has been exhibiting since she was at art school. Her first show was at NG Art Gallery in Chippendale in 2014 and, when that gallery closed, she began exhibiting with Egg & Dart in Wollongong. She was a finalist in the Archibald Prize in 2016 and 2018 and a finalist in the Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship in 2017 and 2018. It was through the Brett Whiteley scholarship process that Mark and her partner, who is also an artist, met Ben Quilty.

Quilty offered the pair a studio space in the Southern Highlands village of Robertson and the couple decided to spend a year there.

“I am a big winter girl, I love cold weather, so the Robertson climate was gorgeous. We rented a beautiful little cottage, worked from a studio at SHAC [Southern Highlands Art Collective], listened to a lot of music, walked through paddocks and ate at Pizzas in the Mist. It was a very special time.”

In 2020, Amber Creswell Bell reached out to Mark on Instagram and invited her to be in her book titled ‘Still Life: Contemporary Australian Painters’ which was published in 2021. At the same time, Mark began lecturing in observational drawing at University of Wollongong.

Her career was gathering momentum and, after seven years with Egg & Dart, Mark decided she needed to expand her audience. She joined Jan Murphy Gallery in Brisbane in 2021 and Michael Reid Sydney in 2022. The following year, Mark was again a finalist in the Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship and part of Michael Reid’s presence at Sydney Contemporary. In 2024 she had her first solo exhibition with Michael Reid Sydney, titled Night Music. 

Mark has a very busy six months ahead. 

First, she is one of six artists selected to participate in ‘A Celebration of the Still’ now showing at Michael Reid Southern Highlands. She describes her works in this exhibition as “earthy, tonal studies that reveal my interest in reflective surfaces and mid-century furniture and objects”. 

She is preparing for a group exhibition in April of Australian women artists at Ngununggula, the Southern Highlands regional gallery in Bowral, and also her second solo show with Michael Reid Sydney in June.

With these significant commitments on the near horizon, it is no surprise to learn that Mark works every day in the central Wollongong studio she shares with four other artists, including her partner, Nick.

“I come to the studio every day. I don’t have a set time, but I usually arrive about midday or one o’clock and spend about eight hours here. I try to work on a few different pieces at the same time and I am always planning for future works – so the studio is always in a state of flux.”

Mark works in the studio on weekends, though for fewer hours, and continues to lecture at University of Wollongong. She reveals that she likes listening to “some quite twisted podcasts” while she is painting. These include true crime and the What Was It Like series which features conversations with people who have lived through extreme events. She particularly enjoyed the recent episode of this series titled: ‘I Was Buried Alive In A Grave’.

While her partner, Nick, works different hours in the studio, Mark is always accompanied by Schmincke, the greyhound they adopted in 2021 and who is named after a brand of oil paint.

“We wanted a companion while we work in the studio and greyhounds are well suited for studio life. She loves it here. They just want to be near you and she likes it more than home.”

‘A Celebration of the Still’ will be showing at Michael Reid Southern Highlands from 14 February until 16 March.