Image: Bradford, ‘Telegraph & Argus’
Martin was born on the Isle of Man and studied art initially at the Douglas art college, then to degree level at St Martin’s College in London. Ceramics has been the main focus of his own work and teaching specialism, although in recent years has explored subjects through painting.
He has lived in the Bradford district for 30 years and from 1990 onward taught fine art at Bradford College, School of Art. He has also taught art as a visiting lecturer at the University of the Basque Country, Spain.
Manningham Street Scene. In a private collection.
In 2015 a collection of Martin’s paintings of Bradford street scenes (examples below) were shown in a solo exhibition, ‘A Vague Frontier’, at the Dye House gallery at Bradford College, and also featured in a duo exhibition, along with artist Howard Eaglestone, at the poca gallery in Euskadi, Spain. Street scenes of Bradford were also the main focus of a solo exhibition of his work at The Bingley Gallery in June 2017.
He has said of his Bradford work:
The pictures are based on streets that I travel on regularly on my journey from home to work. People might get an inkling of where a picture is set, but will then become confused as it doesn’t match exactly, since I have collaged other views and elements on familiar scenes. The people are taken from all over Bradford and contrived together with the street as the boundary. The paintings are all about light and shade, examining particular lighting effects in the city in a Hopperesque way.
Image: ‘Manningham Afternoon’. Image: Bradford College.
‘Cloth House’. Image: Bradford College.
Other past exhibitions of both ceramics and paintings by Martin have included group shows in London and at the Leeds Design Innovation Centre; and solo exhibitions at the South Square arts centre, and Trapezium Gallery in Bradford, The Bingley Gallery, and at the Manx Museum, on the Isle of Man. His ceramics artwork (example below) has also been the subject of a feature in Ceramics Monthly (Sept 96, Vol. 44 Issue 7, p.37).
Artists blog: http://martinhearne.blogspot.co.uk/