Mungo Powney (b. 1972) is a British painter whose work is rooted in a deep relationship with the joy of colour, wholehearted expression and the quiet intensity of human intimacy. Educated at Newcastle University, where he graduated in Fine Art in 1994, he has exhibited widely in the UK and internationally, with solo exhibitions and regular participation in major art fairs including London, New York and Hong Kong.

Powney’s paintings evidence his love of observation of objects and people. Subject matter has become increasingly important to his practice, and he will often spend days obsessing over which object a painting is thirsting for. His paintings arise from a mixture of what is directly in front of him and the pull of childhood memory, where familiar objects, interiors and figures carry symbolic weight and evoke the poetry of the home.

"I am fundamentally concerned with making compositions that connect us to a powerful emotional energy. I always start a painting with the aim of capturing something fleeting and internal, something other than the physical. I like art that achieves a composition that reverberates on this vital level, among those artists whom I admire are William Gillies, De stael, Van Gogh, Gauguin and Authur Boyd. I admire these brave, big hearted paintings which are unselfconscious and joyful. Painters who are unashamed to let their simple colours out." 

Landscape also plays a vital role in his work. Powney has a long-standing love of landscape painting and a particular fascination with early Renaissance landscapes, whose emotional gravity and symbolic use of space continue to inform his own. Colour is used boldly and joyfully, not as decoration but as an emotional force, reflecting his belief in painting that is generous, unguarded and wholehearted. Influenced by artists such as William Gillies, Nicolas de Staël, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin and Arthur Boyd, his work remains intuitive and exploratory, grounded in intimacy, symbolism and lived experience.