"The Bay" Painting

Martin's beginnings as an artist were back around 1998, when he discovered a hitherto unknown ability to draw when attending evening portraiture classes. Over the next few years, he combined working in his office job with drawing and painting wildlife while being the resident artist at The Highland Wildlife Zoo. Eventually he moved onto painting landscapes when commissions for these proved popular at his place of work.In 2003 Martin, gave up the 9-5 job to become a full time landscape artist. His work is now predominantly in watercolours, and he has accepted commissions from all over the UK and further afield, including among a wide international reach, Belgium, Japan, Australia, and a number from The United States.He has continually exhibited his work in various Art Galleries around the UK for the past few years, from London to Inverness, achieving sell out exhibitions three times in one gallery alone.Martin's work shows influence from both his own particular take on the landscape, emphasising shape and boldly exaggerating hues, with very dramatic skies creating a strong counterpoint to the minimally featured landscape. The use of line was influenced by a wide range of art, including how line in Mondrian's work affected the colour shapes of his paintings, stained glass windows of Tuscan churches, the use of line in the work of Scottish colourists and The Impressionists, and the use of line in well known artists from the areas of ceramics and glasswork.