BIO
Since I can remember, I have always loved painting, love colour, making things, fixing stuff......So it was obvious for me to study Art & Sculpture, yes! well no.... I studied many other subjects instead, like construction, land surveying, drafting and product design.
Finally after many years I decided to apply to art school and completed a degree in Fine art & Sculpture (metal work) at Camberwell University in London. Hooray !!
Then I got married , hooray !!! and soon started my first job, working for an events design company, where many new skills were learnt, making props, painting backdrops, carpentry... I also got a chance to work at The National Theatre.
Along side all this, I continued working on my own paintings which sold through online art galleries.
Anyway, after six long years I started a painting & decorating company with a work colleague which grew into a successful business, whilst having two children, adopting two cats & two hamsters, at this point my own personal art work stopped. Although the decorating work brought many mural projects I still missed creating my own art work.
With the sudden stop of lockdown, I re-placed my big decorating brushes for my small art brushes and began to paint, sketch and draw, using strong bold and striking colours to depict wildlife and the natural world.
Fascinated by the beauty and colour of wildlife which re-opened the doors and taught me a new technique in painting. With this new discovery I began to explore and to use it in portrait painting, as this was something I had always wanted to do but never thought I would be capable of doing, so I went for it!
Inspiration bloomed from observing my children's growth which mothers do anyway.......I became fascinated by the rapid changes and growth that takes place in a child's mind into adolescense. Portraite painting became a tool which allowed me to express my fascination with the human psyche, the many complex identities one person can hold, the emotional response, to modern everyday life and the effects it has on us.
The work of Emilio vila 1930s, Tretchikoff and the Pre-raphaelites inspire my style of painting portraits, using strong bold colours to set the stage for the ethereal and other-worldly mood.
Anabel Martin