Mark Stevens
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markstevens.bsky.social
Mark Stevens
@markstevens.bsky.social
Copenhagen, often elsewhere. Paying attention through travel, art, drawing, photography and philosophy. Writing on uncertainty and how we might live. #TimeofGifts
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
September 29, 2025 at 5:41 PM
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
September 22, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Listening to Linda Ronstadt on repeat all evening. She's so good
September 18, 2025 at 8:55 PM
Picked up Mountolive today to complete the paperback set. These things make me happy #bookcollecting #lawrencedurrell
September 6, 2025 at 2:07 PM
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.
September 4, 2025 at 9:50 PM
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
September 4, 2025 at 8:17 PM
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
September 1, 2025 at 9:06 PM
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
September 1, 2025 at 9:06 PM
The talented Ms Highsmith could also draw: self-portrait 1940; Positano 1952; portrait of Ellen Hill 1954; and cats 1961

#PatriciaHighsmith #Sketching
August 31, 2025 at 3:47 PM
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
August 31, 2025 at 3:31 PM
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
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
Slowly changing my dismissive view of contemporary art. Or rather some contemporary art is changing my mind.

#TacitaDean, LA Magic Hour 6, 2021
August 11, 2025 at 6:11 AM
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
August 10, 2025 at 5:41 PM
Self-definition as a means of escape. #21stCenturyStrategies
July 28, 2025 at 8:39 AM
Escaped to a friend’s farm and tried to make myself useful
July 28, 2025 at 8:22 AM
I thought this interesting: AI is much more likely to perform—rather than assist with—activities related to training, coaching, teaching, and advising.
July 23, 2025 at 10:30 PM
These jobs have the *highest* and *lowest* AI applicability

(Expect a jump in Google searches for phlebotomist)
July 23, 2025 at 10:30 PM
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
July 23, 2025 at 12:47 PM
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
July 23, 2025 at 8:47 AM
“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
July 21, 2025 at 3:17 PM
John Constable, Rainstorm Over the Sea (1826) + David Bomberg, Sunset, the Bay, North Devon (1946)

#SideBySide #RomanticModerns
July 21, 2025 at 12:14 PM
Hydra, Jan 2025. #TimeOfGifts
July 20, 2025 at 8:50 AM
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
July 17, 2025 at 10:11 AM
Two very different takes on same subject. Eric Ravilious' Train Landscape (1940) and Leonard Campbell Taylor's Restaurant Car (c.1935).

#RomanticModerns #SideBySide
July 16, 2025 at 12:54 PM