Douglas Martenson studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where he now teaches painting. He is also a lecturer in Drawing at the PennDesign School at the University of Pennsylvania.
In the galleries on his website, you’ll find his recent work devoted to landscapes, architectural exteriors and room interiors.
I find his room interiors, of which there are additional examples in the “More Paintings” section of his site, particularly appealing. Often staged at night with table lamps providing pools of light and interesting relationships between objects and shadows, his interiors have a wonderfully tactile quality, a vibrant suggestion of the materials and surfaces of the household objects, and a naturalistic feeling overall.
He also focuses frequently on single windows, both from inside and outside, offering up fascinating explorations of light and shadow in the process.
His landscape subjects tend toward spare, open vistas of sea edge and field, with skies often dominant.
As you go back in time in “More Paintings” and “Early Work”, you’ll find more figures in interiors, as well as citscapes.
Don’t miss the Recent Drawings section, in which he explores interiors, objects and figures.
Martenson’s work is currently the subject of a show at the Gross McCleaf Gallery here in Philadelphia, and the gallery has a number of his works previewed on their website. The show is on display until November 30, 2010.
Gorgeous paintings – i like the way he uses the light and he captures the shadows so well around it. My favorite one is the one on the bottom right looking out the window to a beautiful landscape.
What these paintings make me think about is the experience I have when I’m painting a portrait of a house or building. Initially what I’m painting is objects, but as the painting gets closer to being finished, what I find I’m really painting is really just light!