Mellomania

Paul Martinson’s most recent work has a Gothic sensibility evoking concepts like death, evolution and mysticism. This aspect of the work derives in part from Martinson’s singular ability to paint light with a salient edge which is at once dark, brooding and ominous.
 
There is an element of the irrational and the theatrical in the merging of strange worlds, real and imagined, which seem to embrace both the past and present. Individual components are familiar to us as creatures or things but they come together in unique ways entirely of the artist’s conjuring. While the paintings are quiet and contemplative they also make for powerful viewing when a very fine painting method and unusual concepts unite to produce both strong graphics and soft elegant forms.