Donna L. Martin Fine Art

"Dreaming of a Blue Moon" This little piece started as a demo piece for a mixed media class I was teaching/leading (I think the students teach me as much as I do them).  I started out using acrylic paint in blues and golds.  I added stencils and texture paste to create the flowers in the background.  I still wasn't sure what my subject was going to be, but that is becoming the norm for me! Pretty soon, I noticed some of the patterning on the piece and thought it looked like feathering and wings.  I decided to take a chance and see if an owl would come to life in this piece.  (This was the patterning I brought forward in her chest and wings) I decided to make her look very fluffy and sleepy.  I accented her shape with a sharpie paint pen and made the branch out of painted vintage sheet music.  The leaves were made with painted rice paper.   She is peacefully sleeping, dreaming of the blue moon! This piece meas...

"Humble Beginnings" This piece was created because of my Brother.  He's followed me along on this "journey".  He told me that I should paint "BIG".  This painting is a result of that effort!  It seemed like it took me forever.  I stressed over it, then enjoyed it, then questioned everything about it.  This is the end result.  I thought about this painting as a "beginning" of sorts.  By that I thought about symbolizing a young couple starting their own family.  In another new beginning of sorts, It could  symbolize a new beginning as an "empty nester".  Both of those scenarios are big, huge, sometimes scary, unknown adventures.  Both are humbling, full of learning and experiencing a new season in life.  For a new family, it's full of anticipation and expectation.  For a family with children leaving home, it could be grieving and figuring out how to parent in a different way.  It's ...

"Wild and Precious Life" This is an original mixed media painting I created, fresh off the easel.  The inspiration for this piece was to strive every day to live an authentic life and find joy in the chaos of a very ordinary life.  The quote on the piece is from one of my favorite poets, Mary Oliver, and reads, "Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"  This piece was created with acrylics, inks, and painted papers. This one is available.  Please feel free to email me with questions or comments. saltlightwatercolors@yahoo.com donnamartinfineart.com Follow me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/donnamartinfineart

"I Love You Truly" This little painting is fresh off the easel.  It is heavily textured, has many layers, and the cross is made out of metal.  Everything came together for this one and I feel the title of the piece says it all,  "I Love You Truly". This painting is 12 X 12 X 1.5, done on a cradle board.  It will be finished with a resin coat and comes ready to hang. Feel free to send me an email with questions, comments, or if you are interested in purchasing. saltlightwatercolors@yahoo.com donnamartinfineart.com Follow me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/donnamartinfineart

Artist Appreciation Month Did you know that August is "Artist Appreciation Month"?  In honor of this month, I was encouraged by Patience Brewster to write a blog about the artist that has inspired my work .  I jumped at the opportunity because I know who "my" artist is.  I couldn't wait to tell the story. In July, 2011, I resumed a friendship that I thought was long lost.  My friend and I had not spoken in a few years.  We had just both been busy, trying to live our lives and deal with the day-to-day.  My friend emailed to say hello and that he had found my website and spent a couple hours looking at my paintings.  At the time, all I did was watercolors.  I felt like that was the work I was supposed to do and couldn't really do anything else.  We began corresponding through email and picked up our friendship, just like we had last spoken yesterday.  We had always been able to talk to each other and open up to each other withou...

"Take Heart Through the Fire" I thought it would be fun to take you through the creation of this piece, from the very beginning to the finished version! This is how it started out - a big, white, intimidating canvas.  I added some texture with a cool stencil that I have and some molding paste.  I then started filling in some color with alcohol ink around the divets in the stencil. I started adding more color with alcohol inks.  I also had some really cool textured cardboard that I painted with metallic bronze paint and then "rusted" with a rusting solution.  Thanks to Carol Nelson again for teaching me that trick!  I also picked up some paper from the shooting range (that is what is sitting on top and bottom of the stenciled part).  It had all these cool holes in it.  Once again, I painted it bronze and then rusted it.  I started attaching in randomly to the piece. For this middle portion, I painted...

"Circle of Life" "Circle of Life" This is my latest painting, fresh off the easel.  Let me tell you, this one was difficult and I feel like there were some painting and life lessons learned with this one! In Progress I liked the way it started out, but I felt it needed more texture, something to make it "pop".  So I added some molding paste and let it dry. Still....in Progress Then I started adding paint and painted foil.  I still feel like the bird faded into the background.  That little bird kept wanting to say "look at me, look at me"!! No matter how hard I tried, she faded and faded into the background.  Isn't that how we all feel sometimes...no matter how hard we try to be seen, we just fade into the background.  We yell, we scream, we ruffle our feathers, but we are not seen or heard. Then, all got quiet.  Both the bird and I quit trying so hard.  I went back to working on the bird, as well as darkening ...