The foundations of Turkish painting as understood in the West began with the introduction of military-oriented technical drawing courses at the Mühendishane-i Berrî-ı Hümayun, which was founded in 1795 to train artillery and fortification officers and military engineers needed by the Ottoman Empire's land army. In the following years, with the military artists selected from among the officers who graduated from the Mühendishane-i Berrî-ı Hümayun in 1835 and sent abroad for art training, Turkish painting, which was oriented towards Western understanding, reached another dimension. Since 1835, Turkish painting has been influenced by Western painting in terms of both technique and subject matter. These artists have transferred their observations, with their personal interpretations, within the influential winds of the artistic environment in which they live, onto their canvases in an effort to create an original Turkish painting art, from the local to the national, from the national to the universal. One of the artists who has produced works with a variety of individual themes and styles is Mehmet Başbuğ. With a unique conception and compositional approach, the artist has depicted scenes from everyday life, rural villages, villagers, streets, bazaars, cafes, markets, Turkish culture, yörüks, the Independence War, the phenomenon of migration, horses and impressions of the Turkish world on his canvases. The main subject of their research was how Başbuğ, with his unique understanding of conception and composition, transferred man and nature under the geographical conditions of different regions of Anatolia, where he lived and observed, to his paintings. The artist's works titled "Street in Diyarbakır" from 1986, "View from the Village" from 1993, "A Street in Konya" from 2003, "A Market in Konya" from 1986, "Sipahiler Bazaar (Diyarbakır)" from 2004, "Marketplace" from 2015, "Coffeehouse" from 2002, "Coffeehouse" from 2005 and "Coffeehouse" from 2017 have been studied using literature review, qualitative research, formal (visual) analysis and analytical research review methods. It was observed that the artist, with his personal colour palette, unique conceptual approach and compositional practices, attempts to explain and interpret the socio-cultural and socio-economic structure of the geography he comes from and lives in, with its cultural codes, within the plastic language of painting. It is believed that the findings revealed may help artists who are trying to create an original language in contemporary Turkish painting to gain different perspectives.
.Keywords: Mehmet Başbuğ, conception, composition, Contemporary Turkish Painting