Donna L. Martin Fine Art

"It's a Beautiful Day" This tree and little bird emerged as I was attempting to do some "intuitive" painting.  I took a class a few months ago from the fabulous artist, Tracy Verdugo, to learn how to do this style and technique of painting.  Boy, has is been challenging for me!  I truly, truly love it though ~ you never know where you are going when you start out or where you will finish.  Below are some pictures of the evolution of this piece. To start out, I divided the canvas up into squares and chose some colors I wanted to use.  Some squares were dark, some lighter.  The images and marks I made are symbolic to me.  I had just returned from a trip to the ocean and had never seen water that beautiful.  It totally inspired me! In this step, I added acrylic inks over the entire piece.  Cool colors on one side, warmer colors on the opposite side.  You can see how some of the marks still show through. ...

"Butterflies Are Free" This piece is a result of an online workshop called "Animalitos" by artist, Tracy Verdugo.  These types of paintings are really a challenge for me.  Usually I have an idea of where I'm going when I start a painting, but these are really intuitive paintings.  It starts out with bright colors of inks and paints, using symbols and marks that have meaning.  You can see below how this started out.   Then the idea is to pick out some shapes or forms in the piece....turn it upside down, sideways, etc. to "see" what might be there.  When I was making my marks and symbols, I used a wing stencil.  I began to think that it might make for a pretty butterfly wing.  I honestly couldn't see anything else, which is a major challenge for me in doing this type of work! So I began blocking out the form of the butterfly.  As soon as I started that, I knew it needed some kind of flower to land ...

Blossom This is one of my first Mixed Media pieces titled "Blossom". This piece means alot to me - a whirlwind of emotions were poured in and and came out of this one! I didn't want her to be "realistic", but more "whimsical".  I had a great time creating her.  I used alot of different items to create texture and depth in this piece. Her hair is made out of twine. I glued each individual piece on and painted each strand. Her wings are made out of broken glass. At first, she had dark brown eyes, but they just didn't give the viewer the effect I wanted, so I glazed green iridescent paint over the brown. Her eyes change colors between green and brown, depending on the viewers angle. I used molding paste and painted various papers to add into the composition. Broken glass added to make "wings". I decided I needed to add some text to complete my thoughts about this one.  I found some vintage sheet music and tor...

So it begins...we are on our way to Albuquerque, New Mexico so I can attend a workshop being held by Tracy Verdugo.  I love her work and knew I had to take this workshop.  Tracy has the most fabulous spirit and it shows in all of her work.  Bonus - we love road trips, so Chris was excited to come with me. We stopped along the Santa Fe Trail.  I love, love history, so this was just another bonus along the way. Beautiful sunset along the stretch of Highway we were traveling.  It felt like the promise of a magical weekend ahead. We are starting our first morning of the workshop.  I am so nervous...you guys that know me know that I am shy and not very outgoing.  Wondering how I am going to make it through this - I actually couldn't hide in a corner and play like I was invisible.  Tracy was so welcoming and made us all feel at home.  The sun was shining...I was starting to feel ok. We started out by dividing our canvas ...

     Fly Free I shared this last year, but thought it would be worth sharing again.  I have always been one of those people who is naturally shy.  It may have a little to do with the way we were raised, we were always told that children "are to be seen and not heard".  Growing up in that culture, I've always had trouble expressing what I'm feeling or saying what I wanted to say.  Why would I have anything worth saying?  I always felt that when I finally was able to say something, was anyone really listening?  To add to this, I grew up feeling like I really didn't fit in anywhere, that I was usually the odd one out.  I was the one who got picked last for the team, didn't stand up for myself...I didn't know how, didn't have " permission ".  I couldn't really find my place, or my voice.  I attended Columbine High School for one semester before we moved to a wonderful little small Texas ...