Martin was 12 years old when her grandmother gave her books on painting.
Sitting in her studio, walls lined with paintings, scattered canvases littering the floor and classical music filling the house, she reminisces on her nana’s influence.
“Things happen for a reason. She was the first person who got me interested in painting,” recalled Martin. “They were called textbooks of art education. I remember just pouring over them.”
There isn’t a day that she doesn’t think about her nana.
“She would be so excited to know that I’m actually painting and showing my work.”
She is preparing for her in-home gallery showing of her work on April 23.
The Summerside woman said it was a lifetime dream to become an artist.
“I could always draw, but I didn’t think I could make a living as an artist.”
Instead, Martin became a nurse working with people who faced addictions.
“My dad was an alcoholic, but he got sober seven years before he passed away, that’s why I work with people with addictions.”
In August 2013, Martin told her husband she was going to turn their television room into a studio and art gallery.
“I always felt in the way when I was painting around the house,” she added. “I’d try to paint in the kitchen and I’d be in the way. Then I tried the bedroom and was still in the way.”
Shelving units and brackets to hang paintings were installed and separate entrance built to the studio.
“Why not have my own gallery, and if nothing more, I have a nice space to paint.”
Facing a studio wall, Martin points at an oil painting of pink hollyhock flowers.
“My nana always had hollyhock in her garden. I can remember as a child sitting on the deck, my sister and I in the hammock, with these pink hollyhocks all around us.”
Next to it is a painting of a sailboat at dusk. Two passengers are sitting on the deck and a faint yellow light streams from the moon onto the water.
“I called it ‘Dreaming of Brighter Days’,” said Martin. “My brother-in-law was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer the day I started to paint it, and that’s how I thought of the name. He’s since been told it isn’t pancreatic cancer.”
Painting is her way of conveying thoughts and messages.
“I’m trying to communicate how I feel when I’m moved by something.”
Even if she lives to be 100, she says she will never be where she wants to be with her painting.
“I’ll always be striving and trying to improve. It’s like practising a musical instrument. You’ve never arrived.”
In fact, Martin says her painting, “Nana’s Hollyhocks,” isn’t completed.
“There is a bit I want to add to it. I’m probably the only one who thinks it isn’t finished.”
5 Fast Facts
— Gallery show goes April 23, 1 to 4 p.m.
— At Comfort House Studio and Gallery, 245 Lefurgey Ave., Summerside
— Favourite artists: Vincent Van Gough, Tom Thomson, Robert Harris
— Preferred medium: Oil paints. “They’re very forgiving.”
— Favourite animal: Cows. “I just feel such a connection to them.”
Martin was 12 years old when her grandmother gave her books on painting.
Sitting in her studio, walls lined with paintings, scattered canvases littering the floor and classical music filling the house, she reminisces on her nana’s influence.
“Things happen for a reason. She was the first person who got me interested in painting,” recalled Martin. “They were called textbooks of art education. I remember just pouring over them.”
There isn’t a day that she doesn’t think about her nana.
“She would be so excited to know that I’m actually painting and showing my work.”
She is preparing for her in-home gallery showing of her work on April 23.
The Summerside woman said it was a lifetime dream to become an artist.
“I could always draw, but I didn’t think I could make a living as an artist.”
Instead, Martin became a nurse working with people who faced addictions.
“My dad was an alcoholic, but he got sober seven years before he passed away, that’s why I work with people with addictions.”
In August 2013, Martin told her husband she was going to turn their television room into a studio and art gallery.
“I always felt in the way when I was painting around the house,” she added. “I’d try to paint in the kitchen and I’d be in the way. Then I tried the bedroom and was still in the way.”
Shelving units and brackets to hang paintings were installed and separate entrance built to the studio.
“Why not have my own gallery, and if nothing more, I have a nice space to paint.”
Facing a studio wall, Martin points at an oil painting of pink hollyhock flowers.
“My nana always had hollyhock in her garden. I can remember as a child sitting on the deck, my sister and I in the hammock, with these pink hollyhocks all around us.”
Next to it is a painting of a sailboat at dusk. Two passengers are sitting on the deck and a faint yellow light streams from the moon onto the water.
“I called it ‘Dreaming of Brighter Days’,” said Martin. “My brother-in-law was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer the day I started to paint it, and that’s how I thought of the name. He’s since been told it isn’t pancreatic cancer.”
Painting is her way of conveying thoughts and messages.
“I’m trying to communicate how I feel when I’m moved by something.”
Even if she lives to be 100, she says she will never be where she wants to be with her painting.
“I’ll always be striving and trying to improve. It’s like practising a musical instrument. You’ve never arrived.”
In fact, Martin says her painting, “Nana’s Hollyhocks,” isn’t completed.
“There is a bit I want to add to it. I’m probably the only one who thinks it isn’t finished.”
5 Fast Facts
— Gallery show goes April 23, 1 to 4 p.m.
— At Comfort House Studio and Gallery, 245 Lefurgey Ave., Summerside
— Favourite artists: Vincent Van Gough, Tom Thomson, Robert Harris
— Preferred medium: Oil paints. “They’re very forgiving.”
— Favourite animal: Cows. “I just feel such a connection to them.”
