By Martha Mans
Located in Santa Fe, NM
Martha Mans
lavender gray white blue green yellow peach brown
framed in brown frame
The painting process has been an evolving experience for me from the time I was very young and first started painting in oil until now. Each stage had to be experienced and has led to a deeper understanding of what my expression in paint is all about. Painting traditional realism with good design as an important element was where I began.
Now, the evolution of my painting process has brought me to a point in which the subject, the texture of the oil medium and the physical application of the brushstrokes have become profoundly intertwined. All are so necessary to the finished work that if one were to be taken away the work would be left incomplete.
My hope is that the synthesis of the subject, design, expressive brush strokes and the texture of the paint come together to create a work of art in which the viewer experiences all of these elements at once in a powerful statement on canvas.
“New Mexico is a land of earthy colors and textures. Rocks, dirt, twiggy plants, reds and ochres against blue grays, dry, wet, cold, hot, mostly hard and rough create a movement in visual and tactile rhythms that surround me. There are times when I am standing in the New Mexico landscape on a warm day when I want to lay down and embrace it. I can’t help but be madly in love with the textures of everything around me. I am drawn to the irresistible forces that seem to bring me closer to the earth. The more I experience these textural qualities of the land, the more I am compelled to use them to express what I want to say. “
Martha was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where she attended Carlow University and received a degree in art and art education. Later she studied art at the Maryland Institute College of Art and the University of Southern California.
At the beginning of her career she worked as an art teacher and art department head in Maryland and California. After becoming a full-time artist she taught watercolor and oil painting workshops in the United States and abroad. After moving to Colorado she became a master instructor for a branch of the Art Students League in Colorado Springs and then set up her own classes in her studio where she presently teaches on a weekly basis.
She was director for many years of large adventure workshops combining painting and exploring. Some of these adventures include Ghost Ranch, New Mexico, where Georgia O’Keefe painted, a yearly excursion on a Clipper Ship in the Caribbean and Mediterranean Seas stopping at many ports to paint and an exciting workshop in Salvador, Brazil, painting the colorful region and people there. It was due to these painting trips on which the artists had to carry around all their painting equipment that she put together a compact painting travel kit that she marketed and that many plein air artists use as they travel to their many painting locations.
Martha’s work has been featured in many art publications such as: Southwest Art Magazine, Artist’s Magazine, Watercolor Artist’s Magazine and Art Collector’s Magazine. Her work has been used in several books on painting; “Making Your Watercolors Look Professional,” by Carole Katchen, The Best of Watercolor Series, Rockport, Press, “How to Paint Better Watercolor Paintings,” by Jerald Brommer and Jerald Brommer’s Art Education Posters for High Schools.
Her work has received many awards in national juried competitions including numerous best of shows awards. Western Federation of Watercolor Societies, New Mexico Watercolor Society, Pennsylvania Watercolor Society, Rocky Mountain Watercolor Society, Pikes Peak Watercolor...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Landscape Paintings
