Karl mårtens

Lithographic Prints &#; and Newer Paintings. Exhibition at Edsvik Konsthall, Sollentuna, Sweden, June

Karl Mårtens paints birds in watercolour and for lithographic prints, although never the same image. His prints are originals made in editions, he says. For his watercolours he uses large papers, Chinese and Japanese brushes and lots of water. This gives the work a life of its own with surprising effects and &#;mistakes&#;. He paints large and quickly, beginning with sweeping moves and concluding with the fine detail around the face of the bird. He says, the bird tells him when it&#;s finished.

Intuition and an &#;empty state of mind&#; are central to his working process which includes zen meditation prior to painting. Being separated from the intellect, and thus from doubt, fear or expectations, brings him in contact with intuition, he explains. There is always the element of chance and the need to incorporate mistakes, adapting the image as it was imagined to how it turns out. Life long experience from drawing and painting birds and mastery of his medium makes this possible, I imagine. A short documentary about Karl Mårtens and his way of painting can be found here.

Karl Martens was born in San Francisco in but grew up near Drottningholm, on the outskirts of Stockholm. Karl then lived in both Switzerland and Canada before returning to his place of birth, San Francisco. Finally, after an absence of 24 years, he returned to Sweden at the age of 40 and continues to reside there.

The study of nature, with a particular passion for birds, has been Karl’s main interest since childhood. Karl Marten’s birds have a keen attention to detail that brings out the beauty of these majestic animals. Having initially painted very exact, detailed pictures, he has more recently developed a freer and more fluid style when painting watercolour.

Karl is influenced by both Western and Eastern philosophies and he is very interested in the forms of meditation found in Zen Buddhism. This discipline is clearly reflected in the approach to his painting - “The best result is achieved when no thought is given to it; when the mind rests in emptiness and intuition takes over”. Karl is also a very keen and successful practitioner of Japanese archery and he travels the world in his pursuit

For a lithographic print, I need to plan every colour shift before it’s printed, slowly and consciously building a harmony of all the colours - often the image has to pass through the press ten to twelve times - at times even more, before all nuances and colour transitions harmonise. It requires strict precision and a profound knowledge of how printed colours interact (here I also receive help from the printer). Needless to say, the element of surprise does not come from the unplanned, rapid execution as it does with the watercolour medium. So how can one find the unexpected in this detailed and elaborate process?

The image

The first step of the lithography process consists of creating a base image. I do this by painting my image on the matte surface of an acetate film - only using black, regardless of the colour of the finished bird. I mostly use gouache, but crayon, pencil, ink or watercolour work as well. The first film is thus a black and white rendering of the bird that is going to be depicted in the lithograph. I use my Asian brushes, salt, and most often lots of water, just as in my painting. I paint this first image as quickly as I paint a wa

Född: i San Francisco.
Verksam: i Stockholm

Karl Mårtens har gjort sig känd för sina fria gestaltningar av fåglar. Han har ställt ut på Galleri Backlund ett flertal gånger.

Läs repportaget om honom här: Karl Mårtens resa

"Ju mer jag försöker måla utifrån intuitionen istället för intellektet, desto mer förstår jag hur oändlig vägen till självinsikt är. Mina influenser kommer från zenbuddhismen, dess konst och kalligrafi. När kalligrafituschen möter papperet vet man aldrig vad som ska hända. Detsamma gäller när akvarellpigmentet möter ett grovt handgjort papper eller när jag kliver omkring på ett stort akvarellpapper och målar med tjock kalligrafipensel. De handgjorda pappersarken reagerar dessutom olika till mediet - ibland absorberas färgen direkt, ibland inte alls. Det är den här nyckfullheten som inspirerar mig. Vad kommer att hända denna gång? Svaret får jag inte förrän färgen har torkat."

Karl Mårtens hemsida