About Paul Martin

Paul Martin; PhD, MSc, BA, Dip.Env.AD, PGCEA
I was interested in art as a young child and encouraged by my parents but my passion was only really kindled when I was introduced to oil paints, at the age of 13, by my art teacher, Cyril Shackleford. I studied at Bournemouth and Poole College of Art between 1976 and 1980, completing a Diploma in Environmental Art and Design in Sculpture and Painting. Unusually for the time two artist teachers at the college, Paul Fletcher and Alan Denly, continued to teach formal values of fine art and it was here that I acquired the underpinning of traditional artists skills as well as creative processes.  Since then art has been a core element of my life and I have remained a practicing artist.

I have taught art for many years in adult education, colleges and universities. I have been a Programme Manager for Visual Arts, co-authored a degree in painting and been course leader of a part-time painting degree and a large, modular, Open College Networks art and design programme for mature students. My Masters and PhD were both focused on aspects of learning and teaching in fine art and at present I am working in the Creativity Centre in the University of Brighton.

I have always found inspiration in the wild, the unusual and the exotic and with my wife Viv I have travelled widely, looking for new visual stimulus from the dramatic landscapes of Scotland, Brittany and Provence to Italy and Egypt. My painting is mainly concerned with exploring colour and the effects of light on land and sea, or the energy I feel from a storm, wild animals, lavender field or standing stones. I draw and paint directly from nature and then develop these studies and ideas in studio work. Most of my work is in oil but I also work in oil pastels and watercolour with occasional forays into etching and drypoint.

Exhibitions