An Article by Friend and Artist Martin Stynes After His American Visit

“OK, let’s do it!

Martin Stynes   British Abstract Landscape Artist
Photo by Nathan Mark Phillips 

by Martin Stynes

Often this is the simple response to an invitation to meet for a coffee, but in this case they were the final words in a two year long conversation between myself and Betsy Gordon.

Martin Stynes,  Reflection

Our conversation started in facebook; I don’t think this networking site ever envisaged its participants taking their contact from the realm of cyberspace into the real world. But in our case this is exactly what transpired.

Early on, Betsy was encouraging me to exhibit my work in the United States and through her mentorship and contacts in the Florida art world, I did just that at the Morean Arts centre in St Petersburg Florida in 2012.

Charleston, S.C.

Pretty soon the idea of actually visiting Florida then took centre stage. At first it seemed just wishful thinking, but obstacles were steadily dismantled until the point came when it was time to fix a date and book the flights.

The moment we all met at Orlando airport, it was clear that we were all just as we expected. Sharing the same interests and passions, having a mutual respect and interest in each other’s cultures and traditions, were just as we anticipated.

This set the scene for what I consider to be my best overseas trip ever. Yes we shared meals and riveting conversations and visited places of mutual interest, but mostly we talked of art and what it meant for each of us.

South Carolina BBQ 

We visited galleries in Florida and later, on our way to Asheville NC, in Charleston SC and later in Asheville itself. 

Seeing the incredible variety of works and the plenitude of exhibition spaces in these places was a feast for an artist. It also gave me much inspiration. So much so that, at Betsy’s invitation, I started painting in her Asheville studio. This painting was inspired by my time there and is now on its way to the Dunedin Fine Arts Centre for jurying at their annual show.

photo by Martin Stynes

Betsy Gordon is the most generous person and artist. Generous in her time, support and encouragement. She spent her life educating people in the wonders of art and is still performing this task, but now on a global scale through her blog, Rabbit's Moon Studio. It has a huge audience now and an impact that will only become evident in time to come. She brought me to America - and my work to a worldwide audience, and for this I will be eternally grateful. 

But more than this, I am grateful for our friendship. A friendship that is still going strong even though I am back in chilly Manchester UK. And with good fortune, I hope to be able to reciprocate when Betsy visits us here in the Spring of 2014.

That will be just the next step in this fascinating world of opportunity opening up before us all through the internet. 

THE ART OF MARTIN STYNES

Martin Stynes                       Abstract Landscape         google image

"Martin Stynes’ paintings speak for themselves.  Every human being notices the sky and earth. When John Constable went out with his easel and paints he called it going out skying. He was trying to capture the infinite.

Men have probably been around as thinking beings for 500 000 years. Logged into our basic primeval memory are all those impressions of the sky we live under. These paintings give viewers a link to the past and future in their own lives and also the past and future of humanity.

And yet they might not know why. These paintings are a hidden link between past, present and future they surpass the concrete and allow the viewer to access emotions they were not aware they had.

"Somewhere, we are acquainted with Joy" 2011

Because the form is abstract the viewer cannot tie the image directly to experience  and the brain instinctively searches for the emotions which correlate to the image.  Some of these emotions are extremely intense and powerful, they may be beauty and peace or love or hate or even fear and terror.  In the split seconds after the realisation the brain makes the connection that this is an image and not reality. Those who feel love and peace are grateful for the experience those who feel fear or terror are relieved that it is just an image and not reality. Intense experiences in life are remembered much better than the ordinary run of the mill events. When the viewer sees these paintings he or she may be projected back in time by the emotion they experience to an experience in their own lives which is lurking deep in their conscious or unconscious mind and may have been buried for years until they see these paintings. Best of all they may only experience the emotion rather than exact recall of an event, and be mesmerised by the experience."  from an article on Martins Work

 Martin's work takes me to another time and place, here on Earth and in other dimensions.  When I was a child of four and five I had dreams of living in another time and space.  My Mother, rather than correct me listening patiently, which allowed me to honor my memories. I was a child already with a great imagination, but these dreams were so real.  I knew it was England and in the late 1800's, I could sense I had walked the streets of London in a long grey wool skirt that swept the ground and I could see high granite curbs I stepped upon to enter stores....who knows about memories and a child, but it made me believe in Einstein's theory of relativity and the string theory of coexisting times and worlds.  Martin's work brings alive in me primal feelings of other worlds and places and deep feelings of longing and of stunning beauty of a universe we can rarely explain even to ourselves.  Get to know Martin's work and it will take you on an unexpected journey into your deepest primordial self!