PAUL MARTIN
 

THE QUICKENING

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• BACK TO: WORKS FOR SALE

• WHERE ECHOES REST EXHIBITION

• ESSAY BY GREGOR SLOSS

• TEXT BY MALCOLM DONEY

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The most striking thing about Paul Martin's final paintings is undoubtedly the reintroduction of the human figure. These figures had been absent from his Concretions, his investigations of the nature of nature and the meaning of landscape, though even then Martin had promised that 'they will return', but as "an extension of the landscape...made of the same visual language'.

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The figures in these final works are never entirely separate from their surroundings, never dominate, but rather always seem on the point of emerging from or merging with the landscape. Martin's techniques here also contribute to this effect. the layering up of paint, the scratching in,  the scraping and scorching back, the whole process then repeated until Martin was satisfied that he had produced works of real weight and depth, with brilliant jewelled surfaces.

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