"When it's art, you don't have to express it too much in words," says Mark Ibson

Now his own large abstract artworks are hanging on the walls beneath those neo-classical marble paint effects, for sale like all the tables, chairs, lighting, mirrors and more antiques besides, sourced from the French House and elsewhere by York's Zen cook and café boss Florencia Clifford.

This is the self-taught Bishop Wilton artist and restorer's debut solo show at the age of 47 after years of quietly painting and honing his skills at his studio in the former Herris Fisher blacksmith's forge.

"I did a foundation course in art many years ago at Queen's Gardens in Hull but then left that behind. After that, I did a course in graphic design, but it was at the time it was being computerised and I preferred to be more organic, hands-on, which I found in restoring furniture and then in painting," says the quietly spoken Mark.

The frontage of Partisan, in Micklegate, York, where Mark Ibson's artwork is on show in an open-ended exhibition

"I started painting about five years ago; having worked in restoring aged and discoloured furniture and interior restoration, it seemed to be a natural progression. It became a bit of an obsession for me as I experimented with surface texture, colour and composition over the last couple of years and the 33 paintings on show are an example of some of that work."

Florencia first encountered Mark's painting skills during the restoration process that transformed a former curry house into a modish café with wooden and glass service counters, stripped floors and unfussy furnishings.

"Mark was given carte blanche to painstakingly restore the protected ceiling and work on some of the paint work that needed special attention," she says. "He mentioned his paintings might look good here, and as we got to know each other better, though he's quiet and reserved and a bit of a recluse, he invited us to his studio to see his work. "

Florencia was struck immediately by their size. "Mark works on a big scale – his paintings can be three metres by four metres – and rather than an old Bishop Wilton's blacksmith's forge his studio felt more like we were in a New York loft," she says.

A selection of Mark Ibson's artwork on display at Partisan, York

"As he hung each painting, I fell more and more in love with his work, but no-one knew he'd been doing it for four or five years, so no-one had got the opportunity to buy anything."

She set about rectifying that situation, initially by testing the waters by hanging a selection of Mark's paintings when Partisan opened last autumn, whereupon ten promptly sold. This sowed the seeds for an exhibition proper, and Mark's work is now the focus of an open-ended show that was launched last Thursday. "We're extremely honoured and happy to host this exhibition, and now Mark is going to have his London debut too next month," says Florencia.

"It'll be like a pop-up exhibition, for a week from June 26 at Salvesen Graham, an interior design business run by two women in Old York Road in Wandsworth," says a delighted Mark, who has become "a lot more confident" about his paintings now that his work is receiving exposure.

"I needed time to develop, to do things on my own terms, to explore my craft, and it's been a great experience to do that and now get to this point where it's more of an official launch for my work."

The abstract nature of his paintings leads Mark to prefer not to use titles: the printed list of works for sale gives them numbers, prices and occasional descriptions, such as Window, Small In Window, Above Fireplace, The Pink One, The Orange One, The One, Triptych Small, On Staircase. Well, you get the picture.

Bishop Wilton artist Mark Ibson and Partisan cafe boss Florencia Clifford

"When it's art you don't have to express it too much in words," he reasons. "It's there, on the wall; it's difficult to break each painting down to a couple of sentences. There's a whole range of things that goes into a work and it doesn't do it justice to try to explain it."

What Mark can say is: "The Partisan exhibition represents a cross-section of different ideas, experiments in colour, media, textures and composition because I didn't have formal art training, so I've done everything through experimentation, whether I'm working in acrylic, oil, tissue paper or marker pen.

"When I paint, I don't have a specific thought in my head; my art is instinctive, so to put a title on it just to make it easier to interpret seems a bit crass. Motive narrows things down, so you have to keep the creative process open for as long as possible. It's like in football, where the more options you have for a pass, the better, as it gives you more freedom.

"You create a precedence with one work and then you go against that to experiment again – and the fact there isn't a strong, set subject matter means that you don't have to settle on an interpretation of it either."

The exhibition may or may not have a title. "It could be The Elephant In The Room because one of the paintings might look like an elephant's head, as many people have said...but then that painting could also be about neurosis," says Mark.