Art in Healthcare blog Artist Uncovered: Paul

Martin
Of beeswax and metaphysics
Earlier this year, Art in Healthcare were delighted to welcome in their
Collection two paintings by Paul Martin, one of the leading exponents of
encaustic art today. In this process the artist mixes pure pigments with
melted beeswax over many layers often resulting in dreamlike paintings
with a matt and subtle finish.
Repapering size and media
AiH Collection
Encaustic is about experimenting with natural ingredients and can be
traced back to antiquity. This suits Paul Martin very well for here is an
artist who is profoundly inspired by nature and favours continuity and
authenticity over shock of the new.
The two paintings, Repapering and The Sculptor in his Studio which
both date back to the 1980s, are figurative works with similar tones and
aesthetics. Their titles evoke ordinary activities but the unrealistic and
staged feel of their compositions suggest metaphors instead. They tease
the viewers with a myriad of questions.
The Sculptors Studio + size and media
AiH Collection
In Repapering, why is the decorators head out of sight? What is the
female figure doing in the background? What is the flowery pattern on the
ripped wallpaper telling us? Is the child playing with a mirror? Is it a
mirror? What is a mirror?
In The Sculptors Studio, what is this broken circle the artist is holding in
his right hand? Is it a tool? Is it an allusion to the mirror in the other

painting? Are the square and triangular patterns on the floor some
mathematical puzzles? Who are the sculpted figures?
red painting with 2 central figures, male and female, bird and bucket
from 2000-1010
+ size and media
image courtesy of the artist
By setting these paintings like theatrical tableaux the artist wishes to
open up these fundamental questions. And of course there are no right or
wrong answers, just wide ranging possibilities. For instance in Repapering,
some viewers might see a resemblance between the sculptor and
Socrates, the founder of Western philosophy and between the bust being
created and Socrates spiritual son, Immanuel Kant. And is it purely
coincidental that Socrates is credited with a particular method of enquiry
known as Socratic Circles...
painting with horse and family from Concretions
+ size and media
image courtesy of the artist
Paul Martins disposition for debate was honed through discussions with
his tutors and peers first at the Birmingham School of Art, a strong
advocate of Abstract Expressionism, and later at the Royal Academy, a
calculated choice that brought him back to figurative drawing. Then
teaching came naturally to him as something that he could not not do
but he kept up his own painting practice in parallel with his teaching
career through the years and found that this dual focus benefited both his
work and his students.
Crossing the Yellow River
image courtesy of the artist
The sixty-seven works in his recent exhibition When Men and Mountains
Meet at the Dovecot Studios in Edinburgh were painted over the last

seven years. The style has changed since the 1980s. Now vigorous and
expressionist marks fill up large canvasses sometime inhabited by
outlined figures whose beautiful faces peer quizzically beyond the canvas.
The painted surface is more gritty and organic but it is still sealed with
wax which, says Martin, metaphysically bonds us all together with
nature.
The Birth of Mountains
image courtesy of the artist
The artist stresses that the concerns are the same today as twenty five
years ago. The exhibition also acknowledges his reading of Sonnets to
Orpheus by Rainer Maria Rilke that has taken his investigation into the
nature of nature into new directions. References to bird songs and flowing
arias remind us that humanity should respect nature which is to be
enjoyed by all living organisms.
MFPugh
followed by website links to:
Paul Martin Studio
When Men and Mountains Meet
Dovecot Studios with exhibition title
Warburton Gallery