Judi Martinez

Artist in Love with COLOUR! has become my self-description. I finally realised that all the work that I do is my celebration of colour and what it means to me. The joy of owning all those tubes of paint, in different consistencies from fluid to super thick, and in all of those glorious clear colours, WOW! What a sweet revenge upon the classically "dull" materials I was required to work with all of those years ago.

My latest three works, each of a single flower against a varied-dark ground, surely explain and explore this love and sense of delight for, and in, colour. Contrast is very important to me as well, even if only as the perfect foil for the clear colour that I am using. I learned the value of using "black" from my almost-Indiana-Amish background, and have been an ardent believer in it ever since I rescued a quilt made from 15 Christmas quilt blocks that I won. They were each made by a different individual, and extremely varied in fabrics, colours, and designs. I tried setting them together with red, and then with green, even white--what a disappointment! Finally, in desperation, I laid a few on the scraps of a red, green, and gold paisley-on-black print and even I was amazed. Off I dashed to buy the last few yards of that print--and created an unexpected, but very effective, Christmas Sampler Quilt. Lesson learned! It even works for paint!

I do paint things that are not quite so bright as those single flowers, however. I really enjoy doing landscapes, and most of them do not benefit from all-over bright colours. I have even learned to at least try not to paint gaudy fall scenes--but is it ever tempting! My second love is skies--and some of them are truly quite bright, as those of us who live on the prairies can attest. Here again is the opportunity to keep them clear, and usually simple, and to let the colour and light sing for themselves. My first paintings as an adult were a series of Alberta skies. I recently struggled with a scene from the coast of Yorkshire, England. It was a bit murky, requiring the use of lots of complementary mixes to "dull" the colours down to a more realistic effect. As it turned out, the bird flying along the creek caused me more grief than any of the cottages did. After many consultations with my draftsman husband, "we" produced a recognisable bird, which he has decided is a kittiwake. (This prairie farmer's daughter hasn't a clue.) I do like this painting; I just want to clean it up so I can see it better!

There are so many things that I want to have happen on MY paper! I must continue to learn and grow through practise and study. Then, I must sell, because I paint. Painting just to sell would be a death sentence.



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