Marcus Patton RUA
Marcus Patton was born in 1948 and studied architecture at Queen’s University. He was introduced to screenprinting and poster design at that time and his strong interest in music and the need to publicise concerts he was organising led on to the production of some 400 silkscreen posters for bodies like the BBC, the Ulster Orchestra and Castleward Opera. He has illustrated half a dozen books and contributed drawings and caricatures to many more books and magazines. His prints often combine words and images so that they appear to be advertising something even when there is no commercial imperative, just as his posters often disguise their function in the cause of creating a memorable or humorous image. Apart from printmaking, he works primarily in pen and ink and water–colour and has drawn buildings in every county of Ireland as well as many other countries. He was Chairman of the Belfast Print Workshop at the time of its move to Cotton Court and is currently on the board of the Tyrone Guthrie Centre at Annaghmakerrig. He was made an Academician of the RUA in 2015. He has written books on architecture including detailed gazetteers of buildings in Belfast and Bangor, and a photographic study of traditional Ulster architecture, The Bedside Book of Dormers. Some 350 of his musical illustrations were assembled in The Opera Hat of Sir Hamilton Harty. He was awarded the OBE in 1995. He is married to the artist Joanna Mules and they have three sons.