About The Artist

I was born and brought up in Shirebrook, a tough coal mining village in Derbyshire UK in the 1950’s and 60’s and developed a love of painting and drawing from an early age, as soon as I could grasp a brush or pencil in fact. Producing images has been as natural to me as breathing. After University in Birmingham,UK from 1973-76 I joined the fire & rescue service... a career I completed 30+ yrs later in 2007. A means of escapism in childhood art has since been a passion I've carried with me ever since, throughout the 1970’s as an undergraduate and into adult life in the emergency services. I only turned fully to painting from 2008 after I left the fire service and found time to devote to it. About my art Now I have much more time to paint I'm loving it. There is a feeling of immediacy, of life, of connectedness, with painting that I don't get from anything else..... anything at all. So I have to paint. My only regret is that I have neglected it for so long. I am principally inspired by colour, and light & atmosphere. I paint mainly in oils because I love the texture of the stuff. But I do experiment with other media..... I never like to do the same thing twice so I don't really do "themes". The subject for me is mainly just a carrier for some effect I'm trying to achieve at the time, though I do have a pretty eclectic kind of approach to subject matter. But what I paint has to move me. I need to be in thrall to it in some way. Exactly how that is I often don't know myself, but I always become aware of it as I'm working away.... and I'm all done when the feeling has worked itself out. It's a bit like being picked up and then gently put down again by something beyond my control ...but all the time feeling I’m on a dangerous edge. Above all what I get out of art is a kind of endless, compulsive challenge. When I get up from painting I feel an immediate compulsion to get straight back to it again. I take that as a healthy sign and I will always paint while I feel that way. I have always felt that a piece of the artist goes into everything he/she creates, so I endeavour to make each artwork absolutely unique. Like most artists, I suspect in their heart of hearts, I don't paint primarily to sell, so prices for my work are always negotiable. My goal isn't really to sell art at all, although I am extremely happy when someone wants to acquire a piece. My greatest hope is that my art will "touch" them personally. I still want to exhibit my work......but it's not why I paint, it never was. Painting for me just calms the soul. It's my private world. Education Although I am a self taught artist with no formal training beyond school I have painted all my adult life. I still consider myself a student practicing my art, probably I always will. In 2010 I was shortlisted for the Art of Giving, National Art Competition at the Saatchi Gallery, London. Selected works from my portfolio can be viewed online at www.martindavisartist.co.uk, or you can follow me on Facebook or Twitter (Martin1art)