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Overview
Today, Karl Mårtens' distinctive watercolour paintings remain a testament to his lifelong fascination with birds, bringing together traditional artistic techniques, philosophical influences and an instinctive understanding of wildlife.
Born in San Francisco in 1956, Karl Mårtens is a Swedish wildlife artist renowned for his expressive watercolour paintings of birds. Raised in Drottningholm, near Stockholm, Mårtens has spent much of his life moving between North America and Europe, living in Sweden, Canada and California before returning to Stockholm, where he now resides. Widely admired for his distinctive approach to wildlife painting, Mårtens has devoted his artistic career to capturing the beauty, movement and individual character of birds. His fascination with the natural world began in childhood, when he first started drawing and studying birds. Over the decades, his technique has evolved from highly detailed ornithological studies into the expressive, fluid watercolour paintings for which he is celebrated today. Drawing upon an extraordinary knowledge of his subjects, Mårtens paints largely from memory, creating original watercolours of birds of prey, waterfowl and wildfowl that convey not only their physical appearance but also their vitality, movement and spirit. At the heart of Karl Mårtens' bird paintings is a remarkable balance between artistic discipline and spontaneity.
Influenced by Eastern and Western philosophies, particularly Zen Buddhist meditation and the traditional practice of Japanese archery, Mårtens embraces intuition and the unpredictable nature of his materials. Working with Japanese and Chinese brushes, watercolour, charcoal and handmade paper, he paints from above onto sheets laid across his studio floor. This distinctive technique allows pigments and water to interact freely, producing delicate washes, expressive brushstrokes and an extraordinary sense of movement. The resulting wildlife paintings capture the fleeting gestures and individual personalities of birds with remarkable sensitivity. Gladwell & Patterson has enjoyed a longstanding association with Karl Mårtens, having first discovered his captivating watercolour paintings of birds of prey. In 2009, the gallery presented Mårtens' first solo exhibition in London at its former Mayfair gallery, W.H. Patterson. Since then, his original bird paintings and wildlife watercolours have continued to captivate collectors internationally, admired for their technical mastery, expressive freedom and profound connection to the natural world.
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Works for sale
Karl Mårtens
Kittiwake IIWatercolour38 x 56 cms / 15 x 22 inchesStamped with the Artist’s Signature (lower left); Dated 2010Description
Karl Mårtens was born in San Francisco in 1956, and grew up in Drottningholm in the outskirts of Stockholm in Sweden. Since childhood Mårtens has moved between North America and Europe: from Sweden to Canada, back to San Francisco and, most recently, returning to Stockholm where he now resides. Mårtens is one of the finest wildlife artists of his generation. The main preoccupation of Mårtens’ work is the study of the natural world, and birds in particular, a fascination which stems from his childhood. He has been drawing and painting birds from earliest memory, moving from precise, detailed studies to the more fluid and free style as practiced today. Over the years he has accumulated extensive knowledge of birds, and he paints from memory. Painted exclusively with watercolour, his exquisitely rendered studies of birds, in particular birds of prey, waterfowl and wildfowl, capture something of the vital essence and character of their subjects.
Mårtens’ process is a challenge to the need for artistic control, promoting intuition and experiment, and his exquisitely rendered studies capture something of the vital essence and character of their subjects. He takes influence from both Eastern and Western philosophies, especially his study of Zen Buddhist meditation and Japanese archery. Using Japanese and Chinese paintbrushes, watercolour, charcoal and handmade paper, Mårtens applies the watercolour onto handmade paper positioned on the floor of his studio from above. Inspired by the unpredictable reactions between his materials, this technique results in a fluid and free style that encapsulates the movement of the birds.
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