Mari French was born in Manchester and studied art and design at Stockport College in the 1980s. Her subsequent career as a graphic designer eventually led her to relocate to the Isle of Skye in 1995, where, inspired by the incredible landscape, she increasingly, painted and exhibited. She now live in Norfolk, working full-time as a contemporary mixed-media artist, inspired by a very different but no less exciting landscape of saltmarshes, coastline and reedbeds.

In the last few years she has exhibited at the Mall Galleries, London: as a selected artist in the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colour exhibition in 2016, 2017 and 2018; a finalist in Artist & Illustrator Magazine’s ‘Artist of the Year’ 2016; and a finalist in The Sunday Times Watercolour Competition 2014. She exhibits throughout the UK and her work is held in national and international private collections.

She is an Associate member of the Institute of East Anglian Artists (IEA) and a member of the IEA council. From 2016-2017 she was the IEA Social Media Manager.