cork now magazine aug 2007 text
Cork Now Magazine 2007When painting was his bread and ...Mayonnaise by Lynda Cookson
During his experimental and skinn bank account days, Skibbereen artist Martin Stone used to do what thefamous Dutch artist De Konig used to do ... thin his paints with mayonnaise and water. \"I could never eat mayonnaise after that bUt it spread the oil paints wonderfully,\" he grinned. \"Now I keep to traditional mediums which are longer lasting!\" He also used to stretch his own canvases on old window frames and Irish Pride bread trays... until it came back to him via the grapevine that a painting of his had had to be reframed before the wood worm wriggled off with it! Happily, those cost-cutting days are long gone.
Martin was born in Cardiff in 1963. School was not his strongest point but he endured those years by concentrating on art and getting an A level in pottery.
His aim was to become a professional pot¬ter and he hung on to that idea until being made to try painting at art college. \"Originally I had no connection to painting even although I had completed a few com¬missions to raise some money and done things like painting hot dog stands in psyche¬delic colours; bUt in my foundation year at Cardiff Art College you had to try every¬thing. I fell in love with painting, dropped the whole idea of becoming a potter and finally went on to do honours in Birmingham and an MA in Chelsea.\"
After working in London as a muralist and community artist taking on various commissions, workshops for children and public arts projects, he became artist in residence and co-ordinator of a two hundred acre public arts park in Penallta, Caerphilly in Wales. Disillusionment set in after putting a lot of effort into projects which, a couple of months later, would be painted over because of a council decision. Martin decided he wanted to do his own thing and return to pure painting. By this time he had met his wife Anne, a Skibbereen girl, and they both felt they\'d like to leave London and return to Ireland to bring up their family. \"We couldn\'t afford it straight away so we went back to Wales. Fortunately the place we bought skyrocketed in price and the sale of that allowed us to buy property in Ireland in 2004. Not long after that I met Aidan Morris and Brenda Dodd from the Gate Gallery. It\'s with their phenomenal support that I\'ve been able to build up a good reputation for my work.\"
I pressed the right. button and Martin talked about painting. \"Although I am a figurative painter, I\'m not satisfied with
the limited possibilities in traditional modes of representation. I strive for new means of expression evident in fluent and vigorous brushwork. Freedom of movement brings in feeling and when feeling comes through, it\'s more important than finer detail. For my recent series I was inspired with a kind of tongue-in-cheek \'night at the opera and it was really just aboUt having fun. Effectively, I wanted to take people oUt and put on that performance for the night with sections of an orchestra - sopranos, soloists, string sections, brass - drawing on source materials I had had for a long time. It was like a boiling pot in my head using photographic references, paintings I had done before in Wales of a male voice choir and inspiration from classi¬cal channels on Tv. I also listened to music while I painted.
\"I did go through an abstract period doing a blend of expressionism and impressionism but up until that point most of my work had been landscapes. I was captivated by the
architecture, the effects of light and broken colour on the buildings of small towns like Skibbereen and Macroom and was asked to
do a lot of commissions. I love commissions - it gives me a reason to work. I go out there and take photos and always end up doing about ten other paintings as well.\"
The palette knife is Martin\'s first choice of painting tool although brush work is also very important in the composition. To him, the \'mark\' is very important, especially the gestural feel of it, like slathering on smooth and creamy butter (lots of linseed oil is the trick!) with a butter knife. He loves to draw. \"In fact, I see my oil paintings as big draw¬ings but with paint. I\'m very much an artist involved in the world around me and find that the figure inspires me. I always come back to the figure and to people and some¬thing solid. A bottle may be highly abstracted but you can still see it\'s a botde. I like to try and get the emotion or the story of what\'s going on between people - I like narrative.
\"I\'m motivated by trying to keep fresh and varied. I may paint an enormous piece one day and then one measuring just centimetres the next day. In essence what I try to capture is light - nothing exists without light. Line, form and colour all need light. Even with the theatrical pieces it\'s about the dramatic high-lighting of the instruments or the faces.
The faces are depicted in simple form which keeps the sense of freedom in the painting. I try to restrict the brushes I use to about half an inch although sometimes the painting
does call for smaller brushes. If I start getting too much into the finer detail then the meaning of the painting gets lost. Where colour is concerned, I limit my palette so as not to bring in too many exotic colours ¬earthy colours for landscapes and mono-tonal combinations for musicians.\"
Martin\'s work is exhibited at the Leinster Gallery in Dublin and the Gate Gallery in Skibbereen and Kenmare. III