Martin Webb 8x10 Painting

Martin Webb is primarily a studio painter, but also makes monoprints, sculptural installations, and murals, and has completed many large scale site-specific public art commissions. He has exhibited widely on the West Coast and beyond. His work is in multiple private and institutional collections, including The Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, and San Francisco Art Commission.
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I became preoccupied with plant forms during the pandemic, when my gut response to the darkness of the time was to retreat to my studio and make images of growth, renewal, and beauty. It felt like an expression of defiance, resilience, and stubborn optimism, and my studio became a refuge of productive sanity. Since then, the stylized leaf and foliage forms have continued on into my current painting, sometimes having symbolic roles, sometimes purely formal. This is one of many small pieces I've made experimenting with layering, repetition, and pattern.