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Martin's background in Fine Art and Sculpture informs all aspects of his work and he continues to analyse form and structure in his work in two and three dimensions from the Figure, Still Life and Landscape. His more recent work in video and photomontage has pursued a developing interest in Narrative and Scale.

 

In his early still life work the close-in viewpoints and cropping of the images owe much to contemporary advertising and the strong side lighting to studio photography.

This, combined with strong references to c.1600 Spanish still-life painting gives the work both a traditional and contemporary feel.

 

These sculptural images from the most common objects, magnified and viewed from eye-level, take on qualities that transcend their subject matter where a combination of analytical observation and dramatic scale gives a new and exciting insight into life and experience. 

 

Much of his work has been in multilayered, fixed, thick pastel where the medium becomes more like oil paint but he has also worked on a larger scale in acrylics and uses a wide range of media in his more experimental studies. 

 

He has recently been working on more quasi-narrative paintings and videos arising from his interest in ethnic masks and puppets and from his work in photomontage. Many trips to India and other parts of Asia have influence his use of colour and decorative elements. Recent visits to Darjeeling have led to a new interest in model making where he has maintained his interest in the use of altered scale and a search for Beauty in the most unexpected places, combining skills in three dimensions with colour and construction techniques.

 

As Martin moves into a more retrospective phase of Life he has returned to the origins of his creativity looking at some of the experiences from childhood that fed his interest and enthusiasm and led to him becoming an artist. Imagination and play as a child were the starting point of his need to create and construct and he returns to these processes now.

 

His most recent work with Anirban Dutta, "Ghumjeeling", a film about the cross fertilisation of Art and Culture from East to West combines the structure of a factual documentary with the romanticism and narrative fantasy arising from two like minded artists coming together in each others creative environments and in their understanding of the bond between Artists across cultures and ethnic boundaries. The story of a friendship and shared awakening of the Universality of the creative inpulse.