Mark Stevens
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markstevens.bsky.social
Mark Stevens
@markstevens.bsky.social
63 followers 99 following 210 posts
Copenhagen, often elsewhere. Paying attention through travel, art, drawing, photography and philosophy. Writing on uncertainty and how we might live. #TimeofGifts
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markstevens.bsky.social
I rather like this: 'On the Hunt' by British artist Jack Penny, currently in residence at the crumbling Elveden Hall in Suffolk—formerly owned by the Guinness family. Who's hunting who? #Painting
A photograph of a worn, historical room features a deteriorating ornate plaster ceiling with visible lath and peeling paint, suggesting long-term neglect. Below the ceiling, a large, vividly colored painting hangs above an intricately carved white fireplace. The artwork depicts a stylized figure on horseback, sounding a horn, surrounded by several red foxes in motion against a dark green background. The room’s plaster walls are chipped and water-stained, adding to the overall sense of decay. To the left, a white wooden door marked “219” stands slightly ajar, its paint chipped and handle rusted, enhancing the atmosphere of faded grandeur. A close-up of a stylized painting shows a whimsical scene of a man riding a pale horse, blowing a hunting horn while dressed in a cream-colored coat, red-striped trousers, and black boots. The rider has exaggerated facial features, including a large nose and mustache, giving the piece a humorous tone. Surrounding the horse and rider are several animated red foxes with expressive, almost cartoon-like faces, all set against a dark green background. The flat perspective and bold colour palette give the artwork a folk art or naïve art style.
September 29, 2025 at 5:41 PM
markstevens.bsky.social
My favourite pic from a long weekend exploring the Danish island of Bornholm. It's from a harbour-front bar in Gudhjem (God home). The large photo is of Jacques Brell, the reason for which I enjoy remaining entirely ignorant. #TimeofGifts
This image shows a neatly organized set of wooden shelves mounted on a white wall, displaying an assortment of drinking glasses and dishes in what appears to be a cozy, rustic café or bar. The bottom two shelves are packed with clear glass tumblers stacked upside-down, while the top shelf holds wine glasses, a stack of small plates, olive oil bottles, a tall wooden pepper grinder, and a horn-shaped drinking vessel. Above the shelf, two black-and-white photographs of men—one smiling in a beret and the other smoking a cigarette—are pinned to a rough beam. Multicolored string lights are draped along the ceiling, adding a festive and eclectic touch to the space.
September 22, 2025 at 5:09 PM
markstevens.bsky.social
Listening to Linda Ronstadt on repeat all evening. She's so good
A black-and-white photograph captures a young woman sitting on a low concrete step in front of a wooden fence, with plants and wildflowers growing nearby. Her long hair is being blown by the wind, partially obscuring her face, which is turned to the side in a serene, contemplative expression. She wears a striped, long-sleeved mini dress and large hoop earrings, her hands resting loosely in her lap.
September 18, 2025 at 8:55 PM
markstevens.bsky.social
Picked up Mountolive today to complete the paperback set. These things make me happy #bookcollecting #lawrencedurrell
Four paperback novels by Lawrence Durrell with red, umber, blue and green covers—all with a distinctive white handprint motive.
September 6, 2025 at 2:07 PM
markstevens.bsky.social
Verner Panton’s ‘Fantasy Landscape’ (1970). Odd to think this was commissioned by Bayer Pharma to outfit a Rhine excursion steamer hired as their showroom for the Cologne Furniture Fair.
This image depicts a surreal, futuristic interior space designed with organic, cave-like forms and saturated neon lighting. Two people dressed in white lounge comfortably within a tunnel-like room filled with soft, sculptural seating that flows seamlessly into the walls and ceiling. The environment is bathed in vibrant hues of blue, purple, pink, red, and orange, creating a psychedelic atmosphere. The walls and structures feature rounded, fluid shapes that resemble a fantastical grotto or abstract natural formation, evoking a retro-futuristic or 1970s space-age aesthetic.
September 4, 2025 at 9:50 PM
markstevens.bsky.social
Just finished—an excellent, well-told survey of English (not British) art between the wars. Lots of ‘new-to-me’ artists + well-known figures like Paul Nash and Ben Nicholson.

#FrancisSpalding #EnglishArt
A yellow book showing an image of Eric Ravilious’ famous painting depicting an empty railway carriage with blue seats looking out onto green hills
September 4, 2025 at 8:17 PM
markstevens.bsky.social
Ashbee was the daughter of the Arts and Crafts luminary CR Ashbee, spent part of her childhood in Jerusalem, and worked as an illustrator and art teacher after the war. She sounds rather wonderful
The cover of For the Duration: A Lighthearted WAAF Memoir by Felicity Ashbee, edited by Cleota Reed, features a stylized illustration of a young woman in a World War II-era Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) uniform. She is depicted mid-stride, holding a bouquet of flowers and a book labeled "WAAF," while carrying a suitcase marked “ACW2.” The background has a textured, sketch-like blue and black design, with the years “1939” and “1940” written on either side of her path. The title is prominently displayed in bright yellow and purple fonts, giving the overall design a spirited, whimsical tone that matches the memoir's lighthearted theme.
September 1, 2025 at 9:06 PM
markstevens.bsky.social
Intrigued to learn this Spain Civil War poster was too political for the London Passenger Transport Board to display in the 1930s. It was created by Felicity Ashbee who was later at Bletchly Park and tracked Rudolf Hess' odd flight to Scotland in 1941. #FelicityAshbee
A poster, created during the Spanish Civil War, features a haunting illustration of a gaunt woman clutching a child, both wrapped in a gray cloak symbolizing suffering. Red, dagger-like shapes bearing the words “HUNGER,” “DESOLATION,” and “DISEASE” loom above them, intensifying the sense of peril. The stark text “They face FAMINE in Spain” is written across the top, drawing attention to the humanitarian crisis. At the bottom, bold red and white lettering urges viewers to “SEND MEDICAL SUPPLIES” and provides a London address for donations, emphasizing the urgent need for winter relief organized by the National Joint Committee for Spanish Relief.
September 1, 2025 at 9:06 PM
markstevens.bsky.social
The talented Ms Highsmith could also draw: self-portrait 1940; Positano 1952; portrait of Ellen Hill 1954; and cats 1961

#PatriciaHighsmith #Sketching
This image is a bold black-and-white ink portrait rendered in a minimalist, expressive style. It depicts a person with shoulder-length dark hair, strong eyebrows, and a contemplative or serious expression. The brushstrokes are loose and gestural, with large areas of black contrasting sharply against the white background, creating a stark yet evocative likeness. A loose, expressive ink and watercolor sketch of a coastal village nestled into a steep hillside, likely inspired by Mediterranean or Italian Riviera scenery. The drawing captures a charming cluster of buildings with terraced rooftops, narrow winding paths, and abundant foliage, all rendered with quick, gestural lines. The mountain rises behind the village, dotted with more scattered houses, and descends into a calm sea that stretches across the right side of the image, where a small sailboat drifts. Washes of gray and light brown give the landscape subtle depth and atmosphere, while maintaining an airy, illustrative quality. This black-and-white illustration depicts a seated woman reading a book, rendered in a loose, expressive ink and watercolor style. She appears relaxed and deeply focused, with one hand holding the book and the other thoughtfully touching her face. Her hair is styled in an elegant updo, and she wears a long robe or dress, shaded with soft washes of gray and accented with crosshatch textures for depth and pattern. This whimsical illustration features six expressive cat portraits, each drawn in a loose, sketchy style with ink and watercolor washes. The cats vary in breed and mood—some have wide, curious eyes while others appear sly, sleepy, or aloof. The top left and bottom right cats resemble Siamese breeds with dark facial markings, while the upper right cat is fluffy and looks comically unimpressed. The loose, gestural lines and soft shading capture each feline's distinct personality, creating a lively and humorous collection of character studies. Scattered tufts of fur or scribbles enhance the playful, spontaneous feel of the image.
August 31, 2025 at 3:47 PM
markstevens.bsky.social
Intrigued to learn—though it makes sense—that Patricia Highsmith, living in Greenwich Village in the 1940s, had extensive contacts with the art world. She even modelled for photographs, including these by Rolf Tietgens. #PatriciaHighsmith #RolfTietgens
This surreal black-and-white image features a crumpled sheet of paper at the center with the photographic portrait of a woman whose eyes are closed, her hair fanned out dramatically as if she is in a dreamlike or meditative state. The paper lies amidst a sparse, abstract set: to the left stands a miniature, ornate canopy bed with drawn curtains, resembling a dollhouse prop, and scattered around are charred, crumpled fragments and a small broken vessel. This ethereal black-and-white image is a double exposure photograph combining a serene desert landscape with the profile of a woman. Her face is tilted upward, eyes closed, as if basking in sunlight or lost in a moment of peaceful introspection. The arid terrain, dotted with sparse shrubs and silhouetted mountains in the distance, merges seamlessly with her translucent figure, creating a haunting fusion of human and nature.
August 31, 2025 at 3:31 PM
markstevens.bsky.social
The Inigo Philbrick documentary—The Great Art Fraud—is an amusing Tom Ripleyish story. Lots insight into the contemporary art market like ‘fractional ownership’
August 30, 2025 at 7:13 PM
markstevens.bsky.social
Wanted this for ages: Bruce Chatwin’s photographs and notebooks. A happy find in a book sale #BruceChatwin
August 16, 2025 at 3:46 PM
markstevens.bsky.social
Slowly changing my dismissive view of contemporary art. Or rather some contemporary art is changing my mind.

#TacitaDean, LA Magic Hour 6, 2021
A serene sky transitioning from pale blue at the top to a warm golden hue at the bottom, with delicate, wispy orange-pink clouds scattered across, giving a calm and airy feeling.
August 11, 2025 at 6:11 AM
markstevens.bsky.social
Enjoyed this: the memoirs of Donna Leon, the creator of Venetian detective Guido Brunetti. She just *does stuff* and everything works out. Would recommend if you need to hear that.

#BookSky
White book cover showing a cappuccino with the words: Donna Leon, Wandering Through Life A Memoir in a serif font.
August 10, 2025 at 5:41 PM
markstevens.bsky.social
Self-definition as a means of escape. #21stCenturyStrategies
Quote by Luigi Serafini stating: I don’t feel much about the word “art.” It is so much better to call myself a poet — that word is still innocent, there are not that many bucks around it.
July 28, 2025 at 8:39 AM
markstevens.bsky.social
Escaped to a friend’s farm and tried to make myself useful
July 28, 2025 at 8:22 AM
markstevens.bsky.social
I thought this interesting: AI is much more likely to perform—rather than assist with—activities related to training, coaching, teaching, and advising.
This table compares work activities with the most extreme disparities between user intention (goal) and AI execution (action), divided into two categories: tasks "More often assisted by AI" and those "More often performed by AI." Activities like purchasing goods or services (118.4×), executing financial transactions (58.8×), and performing athletic activities (47.3×) are heavily AI-assisted, suggesting that humans initiate these tasks while AI provides background support. Conversely, tasks such as training others on operational procedures (17.9×), distributing materials (11.2×), and coaching others (10.6×) are disproportionately performed by AI systems, indicating autonomous action by AI where human involvement might be expected. This distinction highlights how AI is more integrated in assistance for transactional or data-driven tasks, but takes more initiative in structured instructional or logistical roles.
July 23, 2025 at 10:30 PM
markstevens.bsky.social
These jobs have the *highest* and *lowest* AI applicability

(Expect a jump in Google searches for phlebotomist)
This table displays the top 40 occupations with the highest AI applicability scores, ranked by a composite "Score" metric derived from three components: Coverage, Completions, and Scope. Occupations such as Interpreters and Translators, Historians, and Passenger Attendants top the list, indicating high susceptibility to AI influence, with AI applicability scores ranging from 0.49 to 0.34. The table also includes employment numbers, highlighting large workforce roles like Customer Service Representatives (2.8 million) and Sales Representatives (1.1 million), alongside niche roles such as Geographers and Mathematicians. The data illustrates how both creative and administrative tasks are potentially affected by AI advancements. This table presents the bottom 40 occupations with the lowest AI applicability scores, based on metrics of Coverage, Completions, and Scope. Roles such as Dredge Operators, Bridge and Lock Tenders, and Floor Sanders and Finishers score near zero, indicating minimal potential for AI impact. These jobs typically involve manual, physical, or highly situational tasks, such as logging, nursing assistance, or firefighting supervision. Despite low AI applicability, many of these occupations—like Nursing Assistants (1.35 million) and Maids and Housekeeping Cleaners (836,230)—have large workforces, suggesting that automation will not evenly affect all sectors. The data underscores AI's limited reach into hands-on, labour-intensive roles.
July 23, 2025 at 10:30 PM
markstevens.bsky.social
Piero della Francesca’s Flagellation of Christ (c.1460) + Wyndham Lewis’ A Battery Shelled (1919).

Della Francesca’s strange, two-part structure may have been a inspiration.

#SideBySide #RomanticModerns
This composite image places two historically and stylistically distinct paintings side by side, revealing a striking compositional parallel. On the left is Piero della Francesca’s The Flagellation of Christ, a Renaissance masterwork that juxtaposes the brutal whipping of Christ within a classically structured interior against three calmly posed figures in the foreground courtyard, detached and seemingly indifferent. On the right is Wyndham Lewis’s A Battery Shelled, a Vorticist depiction of World War I, where angular, mechanised soldiers navigate a devastated battlefield while three uniformed men stand to one side, observing but untouched. Despite their differences in era and style, both paintings share a common structural motif: a split composition in which a group of composed onlookers stands removed from the suffering or violence unfolding elsewhere in the scene—suggesting a disquieting separation between action and awareness, involvement and detachment.
July 23, 2025 at 12:47 PM
markstevens.bsky.social
I chanced upon the Japanese term ‘kintsugi’ or ‘kintsukuroi’—meaning mending broken pottery with gold.

Celebrating imperfection, rather than allowing an object's service to end, is rather wonderful

#ArtHistory #WorthALook
A hand gently holds a black ceramic bowl repaired with the Japanese technique of kintsugi, where cracks are filled with gold, creating striking, organic lines across the surface. The golden seams stand out vividly against the dark glaze, accentuating the bowl’s past damage as part of its beauty. Set on a woven, tan mat with a softly blurred white background, the image conveys a sense of care, resilience, and the philosophy of embracing imperfections. A ceramic bowl repaired using the traditional Japanese art of kintsugi, which highlights cracks with golden lacquer. The bowl, set against a white background and resting on a dark purple cloth, features concentric circular patterns and visible age marks. The gold-filled fractures radiate from several break points, emphasising rather than hiding the damage, symbolising resilience and the beauty of imperfection.
July 23, 2025 at 8:47 AM
markstevens.bsky.social
“It would be glib to suggest that the immeasurably complex problems of a whole world are mirrored in the small confrontations and challenges of the garden. But maybe the mindset needed for both is the same.”

Richard Mabey, The Accidental Gardener

#21stCenturyStrategies
A vibrant wildflower meadow filled with an array of blooming flowers in shades of pink, purple, yellow, blue, and white stretches across the image. Delicate green stems rise among the colourful blossoms. Several butterflies of various species and colours flutter through the scene or perch gently on the flowers, adding a sense of movement and life to the peaceful, sunlit landscape. The overall atmosphere is one of natural beauty, abundance, and harmony.
July 21, 2025 at 3:17 PM
markstevens.bsky.social
John Constable, Rainstorm Over the Sea (1826) + David Bomberg, Sunset, the Bay, North Devon (1946)

#SideBySide #RomanticModerns
Side-by-side image of two seascapes: on the left, John Constable's Rainstorm Over the Sea (1826), a dramatic, grey-toned painting with dark clouds and vertical streaks of rain over a flat shoreline; on the right, David Bomberg's Sunset, the Bay, North Devon (1946), a vibrant, expressive landscape with bold purples, pinks, and oranges in the sky, and sweeping strokes of green and red across the land.
July 21, 2025 at 12:14 PM
markstevens.bsky.social
Hydra, Jan 2025. #TimeOfGifts
July 20, 2025 at 8:50 AM
markstevens.bsky.social
There hasn't yet been a Romantic reaction to AI akin to the one inspired by the industrial revolution. I think it’s coming.

#Prediction
A richly detailed textile or wallpaper design titled Strawberry Thief by William Morris, a central figure of the Arts and Crafts Movement. The symmetrical pattern features two stylised birds, each grasping a bright red strawberry in its beak, set against a dark blue background filled with swirling foliage, flowers, and berries. The birds are intricately patterned with green wings and speckled underbellies, and the surrounding plant motifs intertwine in an ornate, flowing composition. The design is both decorative and naturalistic, showcasing Morris’s signature blend of medieval inspiration, fine craftsmanship, and love of the natural world.
July 17, 2025 at 10:11 AM
markstevens.bsky.social
Two very different takes on same subject. Eric Ravilious' Train Landscape (1940) and Leonard Campbell Taylor's Restaurant Car (c.1935).

#RomanticModerns #SideBySide
Side-by-side image of two paintings set inside train carriages. On the left is Train Landscape (1940) by Eric Ravilious, showing a stylised third-class carriage interior with patterned blue seats and large windows framing a chalk horse on a hillside and patchwork English fields. The mood is quiet and contemplative, with no passengers present. On the right is Restaurant Car (1935) by Leonard Campbell Taylor, depicting a more luxurious train interior. Three passengers dine in a wood-panelled restaurant car with white tablecloths and attentive service; through the windows, a coastal town and blue sea are visible. The painting conveys a scene of elegant leisure and refinement.
July 16, 2025 at 12:54 PM