A review from Art Collectors Magazing:

Artist Focus: Ned Martin / Between Two Worlds

Self-taught artist Ned Martin has been painting since early childhood. He is inspired by the feeling of falling and the ethos of “letting go.” His technique consists of making thousands of small marks of oil paint, then breaking them up by scratching the surface only to add more marks. Although Martin credits contemporary artists Chuck Close and Lucian Freud as major influences, he also keenly recalls the impact his fourth grade teacher had on his path to art.

Martin describes that experience in his blog about why painters paint: I had made a small sculpture from clay and she paused at my desk and just for that one brief moment her voice changed. She spoke as soft and sweet and light as angel and her words warmed me and gave me goose bumps all at the same time. She praised me for something I had done. From that moment on, I craved approval for my art… When everything you touch results in complete disaster, one learns to adapt, one learns to focus. One learns to be a better dancer, to sing like no other or to strive to be the best damn painter possible.”

A Baltimore native now living in Hell’s Kitchen, Martin has shown work in galleries in Baltimore, New York, Toronto, Barcelona and Florence. It is his environment; however, that plays a real influence on the work.

“I live and paint in Midtown Manhattan during the week and live and paint in rural central Pennsylvania during the weekends.” he explains. “I am blissfully stuck in my two worlds: simply cannot live in one without the other. My paintings are a reflection of the dichotomy: very photo-real and calming when viewed from afar, contemporary, abstract, maniacal when examined closely.”