Born in the Fenlands of Eastern England, Mark Thompson went on to study painting at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. His early memories of the land informed his studies, and he continues to explore the inextricable link between landscape and memory in his current body of work. After completing his degree at the Slade School of Fine Art in 1997, he won first the Duveen and then the Rootstein Hopkins travel scholarships, which took him to Iceland, Norway and Finland. Mark’s experiences in these harsh Nordic landscapes inspired his first solo exhibition at the Proud Galleries in London. Since that first show, Mark has been the recipient of numerous awards and scholarships, including the Gilchrist Fisher Landscape Painting Award, the Villiers David Award, and most recently a Pouch Cove Foundation residency. Mark’s paintings have been the subject of numerous solo and group exhibitions in Europe and America. His work is represented in public and private collections, including the Government Art Collection of Great Britain and Microsoft collections.