Martin
Herbert
Professional
artist Martin Herbert lives and works near London, England.
He is a founder member of the British Visionary Artist Group
His spiritually-inspired artworks on many themes sell worldwide.
His most recent work explores techniques of blending computer
3D modelled graphics with more traditional media such as watercolour
and coloured pencil (as in "Ammonite", above), and
he is currently working on adapting the Mische technique to
acrylic media. Martin is also an accomplished folk musician
and recording artist, specialising in folk fiddle. He released
a solo album of North American flute music in 1999 and turned
professional as an artist in late 2000 afer returning from
a round-the-world trip which provided much inspiration for
future work.
"I
live and work in the small but artistically thriving market
town of
Llanidloes in Mid Wales, where I can usually be found painting
in my
studio gallery on Shortbridge Street. I work both in traditional
and
digital media in roughly equal proportion, having started
to learn the
Mische technique of painting, first from Brigid Marlin of
the AOI, and
then from Ernst Fuchs in Austria. I am still assimilating
the
technique, and probably will be doing so for the rest of my
life.
Currently I'm experimenting with using it in a more expressionist
way,
allowing pictures to develop of their own accord from textures
laid down
using white tempera sponged, stippled or stamped onto the
canvas.
Apart from developing my oil painting, I am a campaigner for
the
acceptance of digital art in the fine-art world - something
of an uphill
struggle since any technique which can be used superficially
to produce
'cut and paste' images tends to be devalued by the volume
of lower
quality pieces on the market. Two dimensional still digital
art is still
finding its place in the art market, and it will take a while
before
buyers have a firm grasp on what makes a piece more or less
valuable as
an investment.
My inspiration comes from dreams, meditation, and observation
of the
natural world, underpinned by nature oriented spirituality,
and I find a
lot of my clients have a similar spiritual background. They
are
searching for images which resonate on an archetypal level
and provoke
an emotional response which is refreshed with diferent nuances
every
time they look again at a painting. I feel I am still settling
into my
natural path artistically; sometimes crossing it, sometimes
backtracking, and sometimes following it directly for a while
before
getting distracted by something shiny, but I feel the journey
will be
worthwhile in the end".