Artist Mark Ward shares experience of meeting Dame Judi Dench after painting portrait

  • Watch the interview with Kelso based artist Mark Ward.

A Kelso artist has spoken of his delight at presenting a portrait he painted to Dame Judi Dench.

Mark Ward received the seal of approval from one of the country's most recognised actresses, vindicating his career change following a health scare he had six years ago.

He was diagnosed with cancer in 2017 and decided to ditch his day job as a graphic designer to focus solely on painting.

Mark has completed portraits of various famous people. Credit: Mark Ward.

Speaking about his decision turn his brush to painting famous faces, Mark said: "Last year, I think it was, I decided to do an Icon series, so I picked four famous people.

"We discussed it with close friends and asked each other who would you pick.

"So we went with Dame Judi Dench, Anthony Hopkins, Sir David Attenborough and Will Smith.

"Quite an eclectic mix, but I thought, we'll do that. We'll go with a realism style, which I enjoy doing but I like a painting to look like a painting, but there is a lot of love for stuff when it looks like a photograph kind of thing.

"So that's that's what I've tried to do with those four."

Mark went onto social media to see what reaction his work would receive and subsequently had a message from Dame Judi Dench's PR team.

He said: "We got a reaction from Judy's PR team, who put me in touch with her. And I was lucky enough to give it to her last week.

"It was terrifying. I mean, she's not just a star, she's like a like a legend, she's a global icon.

"And we thought we'd be meeting her outside the stage door and just handing it over and saying thanks but we were invited in, then went backstage after the show, and we were there for about half an hour.

"I was absolutely over the moon, I couldn't have dreamed for a better sort of handover. Oh, she was amazing. She was so lovely. She's everything you wanted to be, so down to earth."

Mark and his family moved to the Borders earlier this year and connected with the local art scene through a Kelso gallery.

Mark has always painted portraits of Will Smith and Sir David Attenborough. Credit: ITV

Tricia Duncan from EPTAS Arts, said: “It's lovely when you've got an artist of Mark's caliber to come and join the community and it is a very active art community.

"There are groups in virtually every village, in every town within the Borders, and there are art exhibitions in virtually every town as well.

"And of course, Kelso's art exhibition is the main art exhibition during Civic Week, and this year we were fortunate enough that Mark was able to be here in town to add some of his wonderful pictures to that exhibition.

"One of the really exciting things for me is that Mark's actually agreed to bring some of his paintings in here to sell, so I'm really looking forward to that as well."

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