Antipodean Light (2012) oil on canvas, stretcher: 850 x 500 x 37 mm
Cat Thrill (2012)
acrylic on board, frame: 870 x 1292 x 60 mm
Screamer Dreamer Misdemeanor (2012) oil on canvas, stretcher: 455 x 358 x 20 mm
The Landing of Venus (2012)
watercolour, watercolour pencil & gouache on paper, frame: 796 x 980 x 60 mm
Electric Dream Forest (2012)
acrylic, watercolour & gouache on paper, frame: 960 x 1240 x 60 mm
Glass Case Adventurers (2012) oil on canvas, stretcher: 837 x 607 x 34 mm
Three Minute Timer (2012) oil on board, frame: 822 x 426 x 46 mm
Mechanica (2012)
oil on canvas, stretcher: 850 x 500 x 37 mm
The birds in Paul Martinson’s paintings are not of this world: they are packaged in crates, fly on metal wings, they are confined in bell jars and glass vitrines, and dangle from light bulb cords. The surrealism of the settings combines with the accuracy of his portraiture to create works that are unnerving and thought-provoking.
Martinson has always been interested in surrealist ideas of the freedom of the subconscious and its place in the artistic process. The otherworldliness of Electric Dream Forest brings together accurate and beautifully executed depictions of birds, including the saddleback and kakariki, with the completely irrational: a field of lightbulbs complete with swimming tropical fish. There seems neither rhyme nor reason for bringing together such disparate subjects, but the precision of Martinson’s composition and drawing presents the uncommon as something matter-of-fact, and the viewer has no choice but to examine the relationships between what is ‘real’ and what is not.
Using this juxtaposition of the expected and the unexpected, Martinson also continues to address concerns about the environmental impact of human settlement on New Zealand’s birdlife in this new body of works. The extinction of the huia resonates with New Zealanders and in Glass Case Adventurers Martinson pointedly depicts a huia pair, along with the South Island kokako, in the only way we could now ever see them in real life – under glass and frozen in time. Screamer Dreamer Misdemeanour shows the bird as a commodity, packaged up for an Empire that valued its tail feathers for hat trimmings and its beaks as brooches.
The artist couches his uncomfortable messages in lush pictures, using the finest of brushstrokes to create a soft, dreamy atmosphere. The mechanical wings of the kea and the angular landscape of Mechanica are not hard and unyielding, but take on a smooth, velvety texture due to Martinson’s delicate hatching and layering of tone on tone. The rich brown of the background sky is figured with the irregular pleats and folds of creased tissue or fabric, enhancing the incongruity of the painting’s subject. The bright green of the kea’s plumage, the only ‘real’ element in the work, seems anything but natural in such a setting.
As always, the questions and concerns Paul Martinson raises in his paintings are couched in a framework of delicate line, shading and colour, initially drawing the eye, then engaging the mind.
EXHIBITION PRICELIST PRICELIST
1AntipodeanLight(2012) 6,500
2CatThrill(2012) 9,000
3ScreamerDreamerMisdemeanor(2012) 3,750
4TheLandingofVenus(2012) 7,000
5ElectricDreamForest(2012) 8,500
6GlassCaseAdventurers(2012) 6,500
7ThreeMinuteTimer(2012) 5,500
8Mechanica(2012) 6,000
All prices are NZD and include GST; Prices are current at the time of the exhibition
PAUL MARTINSON
b. 1956, lives Masterson
ElectricDreamForest(2012)
“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)
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.
1. PaulMartinson,ArtistStatement,2010
2. KimAtherfold,‘PaulMartinson:SleepandTrance’,catalogueessay,2007
3. Ibid
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
PAUL MARTINSON
b. 1956, lives Masterson
2012 Natural Space, milford galleries queenstown
Electric Zoo, Sanderson Contemporary Art, Auckland
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
2012 Figures in the Landscape, Waiheke Art Gallery, Auckland
The Surreal, Milford Galleries Dunedin
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
AWARDS & COMMISSIONS
2008 Wai Art Awards - Runner Up
2007 Montana Book Awards, ‘Extinct Birds of New Zealand’ – Finalist
2003 Norsewear Art Awards - Finalist
1994 North Shore City Art Awards - Runner Up
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.
PaulMartinson2012CV milford galleries queenstown www.milfordgalleries.co.nz
