Douglas Martenson’s art is vibrant, alive, and exquisitely alluring. His paintings are like portals to worlds both familiar and strange, mysterious, intriguing and sublime. Whether he is painting a scene of tranquil domesticity or the grandeur of nature, his paintings invite the viewer on a tour-de-force through dramatic visual snapshots recording moments in time and space that will never be repeated again. Poetic and metaphorical, Martenson’s paintings invokes the visual truth of perception, capturing not just the quality of light or the tonal harmonies of a particular scene but also its mood, and the wonder of vision itself.
In his exhibition “Inside –Outside: Taking another look,” Martenson once again explores his fascination with the dichotomy between interior and exterior spaces. The inherent tension in the subject matter allows Martenson to work at his best, crafting fully realized, extraordinary self-contained worlds. His intriguing use of frames-within-frames begs for intensive, intimate and prolonged viewing: Windows, doors, and paintings-within-paintings ask the viewer to pause and think about the complexity of perception. Two paintings in particular, “Window” (oil on linen) and “Diagonal Light,” (oil on linen) explore the paradoxical nature of the human gaze that looks both inwards and outwards at once. In the former, one looks through a window into an interior space from the outside; in the latter, one looks outward through a window to an exterior space from the inside. By employing the same subject within both paintings, but seen from different directions, space is rendered strange, unfamiliar, uncanny.
Such intricate and sophisticated insights surprise one into constant reevaluations of the nature of perception and space. His loving attention to detail and craftsmanship, coupled with his refined sensitivity to light and space, allow him to capture the precise timbre and tone of a visual experience. In “2 Chippendale Chairs,” an oil on canvas interior landscape, light floods a homey room and the titular chairs flank a wooden cabinet of beautiful design. Next to the cabinet is a framed sketch of a violin, bright lights reflecting off the glass cover. The direction of the light leads the gaze to the window, where the outdoor space is tantalizingly implied but not shown.
Whether he is painting interior or exterior spaces, and whether he is working from life or in the studio, Martenson strives to recreate his impression of the scene for the viewer. In “Rocks on the Shore,” an oil on canvas landscape, his wonder at the vastness of the outdoors and his respect for the grandeur of nature is evident, showing that he truly lives up to his own statement that “The landscape demands that the artist address it on nature’s terms.” An expansive sky, filled with darkening clouds, towers over a landscape of a barren rocky shore and rippling waters. There is a dramatic disjunction between the dusky sky and the calm eddies of the water—the movement of the curved, elliptical shoreline directs the viewer’s gaze to the suspenseful break between sky and sea.
Martenson succeeds at his recreations of visual experience so well that it almost seems effortless. However, his painting process is quite rigorous, and his mastery of the craft is due to years of dedicated pursuit of artistic mastery. Because the light shifts and changes with time, he documents the original lighting with marks of paint upon the canvas, almost like a “topographical map,” which he can later refer back to. It is this combination of artistic flair and methodical technique that elevates his representational, naturalist art above mere photographical renderings and places him at the forefront of contemporary American realism. He places great importance on accurate and honest observation; the experience of perceiving a scene must come through in the process of painting, imbuing the painting with feeling and humanity.
The paintings of Martenson’s show exhibit an intrinsic strength and integrity that are sure to stand the test of time: Be prepared to step into a world of timeless mystery, and the sublime. And although Martenson states, “Some people want everything in their show to be a done deal. It’s never that way. You can never predict how people are going to react to your work,” with this strong a body of work, his show is sure to be a hit.
