By Craig Martin, on January 19th, 2013 2012 was by far the best year yet for painting and I can’t thank all friends and clients enough for their support. With the commissions and gallery sales there were 52 originals sold last year and add to that the limited edition prints there were over 75 sales, so from the bottom and top of my heart, thank you. Sales in Cairns are going great guns with a big thanks to Iefje at UnderArt Gallery. The first batch have sold and batch two is now on the walls. I’ve attached the latest bunch and FYI “Follow That Plane” has already sold. More good news with Retrospect Galleries in Byron Bay offering me another opportunity to display for Artist of the Month this year (date unconfirmed). With a sell out exhibition last year seeing 16 originals bought I’m thinking of putting together at least 20 this time and hoping to exhibit in October. More details to come. And last but not least, if you like collecting those free postcards from the Avant Card collection you see around the place then keep an eye out for REM White Collar Worker. I submitted the piece about 6 months ago and thought I’d keep it hush until it was definite but Avant Card have just told me that they have printed 29,750 copies and are sending them to cafes, function centres and play houses all around Australia as we speak. And to top it off they even sent me 500 copies of my own which have now become my official business card. You can check my card out at the Avant Card website. So again thank you all for such a wonderful year and I hope you will continue to follow me on my journey in 2013. By Craig Martin, on November 7th, 2012  Every year at Retrospect Galleries in Byron Bay they have a pre xmas exhibition. About 300 pieces will hang for it with each artist exhibiting 9 paintings. Each painting is exactly 25cm x 25cm. Its a great idea for affordable, original, all time epic presents for the ones you love… or really really like. This year my theme was Sky Music.
Price per original - $190 framed For inquiries about these pieces feel free to call Retrospect Galleries on (02) 6680 8825 or check out their Web Site. For commission inquiries feel free to contact me direct. By Craig Martin, on July 22nd, 2012  Great news, I’ve been given the thumbs up to hang some pieces in Underart Gallery – Cairns!
Brilliant artist and store owner Iefie Boissevain sells her stunning paintings and the works of many other other talented creators through her gallery right in the middle of Cairns. Here is a sample of one of the pieces I’ll be sending North to Iefie in the next month. Its called, “R. E. M. Random Explosive Magic – White Collar Worker” and is the first of a series of paintings unfolding in my head to be released throughout the year. By Craig Martin, on June 22nd, 2012  Big thanks to the team at the Northern Star (newspaper) for help with this article. The exhibition is going great for June. Six images have sold so far and the prints are nearly ready for hanging too. There hasn’t been much painting work for the last couple of weeks but a plitherah… plethera… (quick google) plethora of paintings are stacking up in the brain and need to get out so there’ll be some more to share soon.
Just want to say thanks for all the support and “likes” from friends, families and the lovely randoms that find their way here. It means a lot. By Craig Martin, on May 13th, 2012 I was scouring the net for illustrations and art and happened across a site I wasn’t aware of and found my pictures being displayed. It was a pleasant shock and lovely to see my works being displayed beside the likes of Sydney Nolan, Ken Done and Del Katheryn Barton to name a few. Check out the We Wish website, there are loads of fantastic imagery. By Craig Martin, on April 26th, 2012  Huge news today! Retrospect Galleries have just agreed to do a limited edition print run for the attached paintings. It’s great news and I’m really stoked but I haven’t got too much time to celebrate just now as there is more to do before they’re ready. I must also apologise as I haven’t named them as yet… this is also on the to do list. If you you have any suggestions for them please leave a comment below, or contact me directly.
So now we send them off to have a veeery high resolution copy made of each picture, they print of a batch of 30 for each image (which are somewhere between A4 and A3 paper size) and then I come in to hand write their number (as in 1/30, 2/30, 3/30…) date them and sign them! did I mention how excited I am to do this part? I’ve painted these three so that the subject matter works perfectly as a set of three images, but also each picture is just as powerful on its own. The gallery has suggested that I let people know asap that they’re going into print as purchasing a specific numbered print in advance is a wise choice if you’d like to secure one of them, or the whole set of three. If you do want to secure an image or three, just get in touch with Retrospect Galleries Byron Bay on (02) 6680 8825 and let them know you saw the paintings on my website. By Craig Martin, on April 22nd, 2012  The pictures are coming to my head faster than I can paint. My time is currently spent painting, eating and sleeping… and I also still bath regularly too.
This is just a quick update of images as I have to get back to the paints. I hope you like them. I also wanted to add that Retrospect Galleries are considering doing a small run of limited edition prints for a set of three paintings I’m working on as we speak. If we finalise the go ahead there will be a set of 3 images printed as a run of 30. I hope to have them finished in the near future so check back again soon and they should be ready for a sneak peak. Worst case scenario is they don’t go into print and I get to sell them the originals as individual images, win win situation. Back to it. p.s. If you have any comments on my art in this post, or any others, I would love to hear them and you can use the comments function just below. By Craig Martin, on April 1st, 2012  It was a very successful month for me at Retrospect with 5 big paintings selling at the Full Spectrum Exhibition. It’s with thanks to the Retro staff, including their lovely new framer who puts the cherry on top of my paintings with her lovely framing skills, for their help making this possible. It has been an excellent year for commissions too and I’d like to put another thanks out to those who’ve contacted me to create something personal for themselves or their loved ones.
It’s focus time for the next couple of months as Retrospect have asked me to be artist of the month for June and I’ll need quite a few pieces to cover the entry wall at the Byron Gallery for that. I’ve attached some of the recent paintings for June as a little teaser. By Craig Martin, on February 26th, 2012  So all the colours of the rainbow are going to travel around the walls of Byron Bay Retrospect Galleries in March. Only a small handful of artists will exhibit this time and each of us have been asked to pick our favourite colour from the old Roy. G. Biv. (Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Indigo Violet) and use it as the dominant colour for our pieces. I immediately grabbed blue! It’ll be a dazzling display of colour I’m sure and a great night too so check out the Full Spectrum Exhibition at the Byron Bay Retrospect Galleries on the 2nd of March… bring a pair of sunnies.
By Craig Martin, on February 26th, 2012 The Petit Smalls Exhibition in December 2011 was a hit. Some of my paintings were bought off the exhibition website before the opening night which was very touching. There are still a handful left too and we’re going to try to add them to an Exhibition that’s opening in March called the Full Spectrum. There will be a bunch of other images both old and new but its the last of the warmer weather in Byron Bay and its shaping up to be a great night so if you’re in Byron check out Retrospect Galleries on the 2nd of March 2012. | Agent WantedI'm currently looking for an agent to help promote my work. If you specalise in illustration artwork please contact me so we can discuss our goals. |
