paul martinson

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

milford galleries queenstown9A Earl Street (03) 442 6896 [email protected]

4th - 29th June 2011

Paul Martinson

Dream Swimmers

1. PAUL MARTINSON, Predator and Prey in Sleeping Paradise (2011)

watercolour & watercolour pencil on paper, frame (v x h x d): 765 x 984 x 34 mm, painted image (v x h): 420 x 665 mm

1. DETAIL VIEW PAUL MARTINSON, Predator and Prey in Sleeping Paradise (2011)

2. PAUL MARTINSON, Dreaming and Floating (2011)


2. DETAIL VIEW PAUL MARTINSON, Dreaming and Floating (2011)

3. PAUL MARTINSON, Shrill Cry (2011)

watercolour, watercolour pencil & gouache on paper, frame (v x h x d): 790 x 995 x 34 mm, painted image (v x h): 437 x 640 mm

3. DETAIL VIEW PAUL MARTINSON, Shrill Cry (2011)

4. PAUL MARTINSON, Black and White Trance Symphony (2011)


4. DETAIL VIEW PAUL MARTINSON, Black and White Trance Symphony (2011)

5. PAUL MARTINSON, Wedding Safari (2011)


5. DETAIL VIEW PAUL MARTINSON, Wedding Safari (2011)

6. PAUL MARTINSON, The Quantum Force of Mother (2011)

watercolour, watercolour pencil, gouache & acrylic on paper, frame (v x h x d): 825 x 995 x 34 mm, painted image (v x h): 480 x 680 mm

6. DETAIL VIEW PAUL MARTINSON, The Quantum Force of Mother (2011)

7. PAUL MARTINSON, The Mimics (2010)

watercolour, watercolour pencil, gouache & acrylic on paper, frame (v x h x d): 950 x 1237 x 34 mm, painted image (v x h): 550 x 870 mm

7. DETAIL VIEW PAUL MARTINSON, The Mimics (2010)

8. PAUL MARTINSON, Mother Lover Melodrama (2011)


8. DETAIL VIEW PAUL MARTINSON, Mother Lover Melodrama (2011)

9. PAUL MARTINSON, The Transformation of Venus (2011)


9. DETAIL VIEW PAUL MARTINSON, The Transformation of Venus (2011)

10. PAUL MARTINSON, Genetic Landscape for Birds (2011)


10. DETAIL VIEW PAUL MARTINSON, Genetic Landscape for Birds (2011)

The subjects in Paul Martinson’s exquisitely rendered watercolours are ‘en-tranced’. Magpies

doze in quiet companionship, kingfishers float in a dreamscape, herons and women sleep

entwined. Species are instantly recognisable as tui, gannet, waxeye, but despite his

meticulous depiction of pattern and colour, Martinson’s works are not bird portraits or

reference plates.

Martinson allows his mind’s eye to wander and, drawing on the philosophies of surrealism,

believes that “to draw spontaneously without conscious reference to normality, morality and

social taboos … is an attempt to allow a ‘free flow’ of imagery and ideas as a painter.” (1)

This ‘free flow’ permits him to create spaces where birds and women may be lovers or where

birds sleep tucked up in individual ‘pigeonholes’ with bills, beaks and feet falling

unselfconsciously out of the picture plane. The juxtaposition of the rational and the irrational is

a powerful tool and the viewer has no choice but to examine the relationships between what

is ‘real’ and what is not.

The - mostly faceless - female forms that cohabit with birdlife in Martinson’s ‘trance-space’ can

be read as an archetypal woman: at once mother, lover, companion, living creation. The

potentially unsettling sensuality of these paintings is tempered with the tenderness with which

the artist has assembled the tableaux. Avian and human bodies curve in to one another and

claws do not clutch, but embrace. The scenes bring to mind the myth of Leda and the Swan,

but the violence and drama of that story is absent here.

There is stillness inherent in these works, heightened by the textural richness and harmony of

Martinson’s mark-making. Using combinations of watercolour, watercolour pencil, gouache

and acrylic, he creates the lush, moody backgrounds evident in a work such as ‘Wedding

Safari’ while at the same time describing the delicate tracery of feathers and claws. A fine

sense of balance in the composition prevails, both spatially and in the tonal textures the artist

uses: feathers and hair mimic one another as do wings and limbs. Fabrics are draped softly,

providing a foil for hard, piercing beaks.

Tranquillity suffuses Martinson’s scenes, yet his figures exhibit a dynamism that is especially seen

in a work such as ‘The Mimics’. The artist’s composition of curved bodies, taut limbs and flying

hair implies that this repose is purposeful – the figures appear to be actively dreaming rather

than passively slumbering. Indeed, in ‘The Transformation of Venus’ change is happening

before our eyes as woman becomes bird – or does bird become woman?

Martinson does not allow the viewer to sit on the fence. If his works evoke strong reaction, it is

testament to his consummate skill at showing us things that may unnerve and unsettle. His

investigation of the irrational subconscious gives us the freedom to look at his works

unhindered by a defined ‘reality’ and invites us to look into our own imaginings, whether or not

we will.

1. Paul Martinson, Artist’s Statement, 2010

E X H I B I T I O N P R I C E L I S T 1 Predator and Prey in Sleeping Paradise (2011) 6,000

2 Dreaming and Floating (2011) 6,500

3 Shrill Cry (2011) 6,500

4 Black and White Trance Symphony (2011) 6,500

5 Wedding Safari (2011) 7,000

6 The Quantum Force of Mother (2011) 7,000

7 The Mimics (2010) 7,500

8 Mother Lover Melodrama (2011) 6,500

9 The Transformation of Venus (2011) 6,500

10 Genetic Landscape for Birds (2011) 7,000

All prices are NZD and include GST; Prices are current at the time of the exhibition

Paul Martinson 2011 CV milford galleries queenstown www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

P a g e | 1

PAUL MARTINSON b. 1956, lives Masterson

Non Vocal Dawn Chorus Vol 2 (2010)

“Martinson believes we are, at any time the sum of our entire experience which includes on one hand

the connections we make throughout our life with all other creatures on the planet, even fleetingly (this

comprises the great range of relationships we make), everyday experience, and the swirling,

interlocking personal reality of our subconscious, and all that it comprises.” (1)

Martinson’s work is “out of the ordinary, ethereal and often edgy, with a greater emphasis on the

psychological, the sensual and the sexual.” (2)

“Martinson has created a new aesthetic in which meticulous attention to detail, rich surface texture

and beauty co-exists with a definitive and individual point of view.” (3)

1. Paul Martinson, Artist Statement, 2010

2. Kim Atherfold, ‘Paul Martinson: Sleep and Trance’, catalogue essay, 2007

3. Ibid

Martinson, born 1956, lives in Masterton. Prior to taking up painting as a full time career in 1987, he

worked as a science technician for DSIR (Department of Scientific and Industrial Research). In 2004

Martinson was commissioned by Te Papa Tongarewa to paint New Zealand’s extinct birdlife, resulting in

the publication, Extinct Birds of New Zealand, which was published in 2006. In 2007 Martinson exhibited a

series of new works, marking a significant change of direction in his painting and drawing practice.

Paul Martinson 2011 CV milford galleries queenstown www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

P a g e | 2

PAUL MARTINSON b. 1956, lives Masterson

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2011 Dream Swimmers, milford galleries queenstown

2010 Mellomania, Sanderson Contemporary Art, Auckland

2009 A Freudian Slip, Sanderson Contemporary Art, Auckland

2007 Sleep and Trance, Ferner Galleries, Auckland

2006 Te Papa Tongarewa's Extinct Birds of New Zealand publication launch with accompanying

exhibition entitled New Work.

2004 Creatures Recreated, Ferner Galleries, Auckland

2002 Tide, Ferner Galleries, Auckland

2001 Colours of the Wild, Ferner Galleries, Wellington

2000 Rare and Threatened Birds, Ferner Galleries, Auckland

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2009 Advent, Sanderson Contemporary Art, Auckland

2009 The Inimitable Mister Hopkins: The Barry Hopkins Art Collection, Waikato Museum of Art & History,

Hamilton

2009 Mindgames: Surrealism in Aotearoa, Hastings City Art Gallery, Hastings

2008 Outsider Art, Ferner Galleries, Taupo

2007 Wairarapa Review, Aratoi, Wairarapa Museum of Art and History, Masterton

2007 Chatham Islands, Southland Museum

2007 Auckland Art Fair, Ferner Galleries, Auckland

2005 Wairarapa Review, Aratoi, Wairarapa Museum of Art and History, Masterton

2003 Modern Landscapes, Ferner Galleries, Auckland

2002 Crosslinks, Pataka Museum of Art, Porirua

2002 Grids and Crosses, Ferner Galleries, Auckland

2001 Icons and Kiwiana, Ferner Galleries, Auckland

1994 Real Vision, Robert McDougall Gallery Christchurch

1993 Huia, Temanawa, Manawatu Art Gallery touring exhibition

COLLECTIONS

Te Papa Tongarewa, Museum of New Zealand (Fifty-eight (58) paintings in watercolour portraying New

Zealand's extinct birds)

BIBLIOGRAPHY 2010 McNamara, TJ, ‘More Than a Touch of Strangeness', Auckland Herald, October 2010.

Thornber, Lorna, ‘Bird’s-eye View’, Her Magazine, November 2010, Issue 121, p 116-119.

2009 Atherfold, Kim, Venus in Free Fall: The Art of Paul Martinson 2004 – 2008. Dissertation completed

at Auckland, University, Art History Department.

2008 Atherfold, Kim, 'Paul Martinson's work on Aluminium', NZ Art Monthly, March 2008.

2007 Atherfold, Kim, Paul Martinson: Sleep and Trance, catalogue, Ferner Galleries, Auckland.

2006 Martinson, Paul and Alan Tennyson, Extinct Birds of New Zealand, TePapa Press, Wellington.

1991 Martinson, Paul, New Zealand Birds, Grantham House, Auckland.

1991 Gill, Brian and Paul Martinson, New Zealand's Extinct Birds, Random Century, Auckland.

paul martinson

Documents

x h x d

painted image v x h

view paul martinson

watercolour watercolour

watercolour pencil gouache

paul martinsons

paul martinsondream

gouache acrylic