At the time when he began working with digital media , Mark began to experiment with the use of the painted medium.

This followed 18 years in an art studio as Creative Director, then 10 years teaching. In this new educational environment he expanded his own ideas working with dreamed images, the environment and awareness of his own mortality. He moved from the  medium of watercolour to oil paints on a wide variety of surfaces. from all he leaned with digital media, he began to experiment with paint to achieve similar effects of transparency and layers with the images taking on the form of montages.

His influences were wide and varied and are expounded on the relevant page: Inspirations

From these works he continued to work with paint and digital prints combined, in a collage form. Textures were a big part of his early experiments and were used extensively in the new work.

He sees a future in the fusion of the two media; in the technological age he prefers to see the two informing one another rather than being exclusive.