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Martin Herbert

Professional artist Martin Herbert lives and works near London, England. He is a founder member of the British Visionary Artist Group

His spiritually-inspired artworks on many themes sell worldwide. His most recent work explores techniques of blending computer 3D modelled graphics with more traditional media such as watercolour and coloured pencil (as in "Ammonite", above), and he is currently working on adapting the Mische technique to acrylic media. Martin is also an accomplished folk musician and recording artist, specialising in folk fiddle. He released a solo album of North American flute music in 1999 and turned professional as an artist in late 2000 afer returning from a round-the-world trip which provided much inspiration for future work.


"I live and work in the small but artistically thriving market town of
Llanidloes in Mid Wales, where I can usually be found painting in my
studio gallery on Shortbridge Street. I work both in traditional and
digital media in roughly equal proportion, having started to learn the
Mische technique of painting, first from Brigid Marlin of the AOI, and
then from Ernst Fuchs in Austria. I am still assimilating the
technique, and probably will be doing so for the rest of my life.
Currently I'm experimenting with using it in a more expressionist way,
allowing pictures to develop of their own accord from textures laid down
using white tempera sponged, stippled or stamped onto the canvas.

Apart from developing my oil painting, I am a campaigner for the
acceptance of digital art in the fine-art world - something of an uphill
struggle since any technique which can be used superficially to produce
'cut and paste' images tends to be devalued by the volume of lower
quality pieces on the market. Two dimensional still digital art is still
finding its place in the art market, and it will take a while before
buyers have a firm grasp on what makes a piece more or less valuable as
an investment.

My inspiration comes from dreams, meditation, and observation of the
natural world, underpinned by nature oriented spirituality, and I find a
lot of my clients have a similar spiritual background. They are
searching for images which resonate on an archetypal level and provoke
an emotional response which is refreshed with diferent nuances every
time they look again at a painting. I feel I am still settling into my
natural path artistically; sometimes crossing it, sometimes
backtracking, and sometimes following it directly for a while before
getting distracted by something shiny, but I feel the journey will be
worthwhile in the end".