Martyn Brewster’s abstract paintings are strongly linked to the English landscape tradition. His paintings and drawings explore the coastal light of the south coast of Dorset where he has lived...
Martyn Brewster’s
abstract paintings are strongly linked to the English landscape tradition. His paintings
and drawings explore the coastal light of the south coast of Dorset where he
has lived and worked since leaving London in the early 1990s.
Brewster received his undergraduate degree from Brighton Polytechnic where he
studied under Dennis Creffield. His very early work was informed by his tuition
and was both expressionistic and figurative, although his interest in abstract
art was very apparent by the mid-1970s. After taking a post-graduate degree in
print making, Brewster began exhibiting regularly in London and further afield.
His early influenced included the Abstract Expressionists but also abstract art
from mainland Europe, particularly artists such as Nicolas de Staël and Serge
Poliakoff. He retains a particular admiration for John Hoyland’s work and that
of the St Ives School.
His emergence in the 1980s coincided with a renewed interest in neo-classical
figurative work, and as an avowed abstract painter he found himself out of step
with current trends. However, he began exhibiting regularly at the Warwick Arts
Trust in London which at the time was a haven for British abstract painting,
and there he regularly exhibited alongside more senior figures such as John
Hoyland and Gillian Ayres. During this time he began exhibiting with the Jill George
Gallery and enjoyed a highly successful 26 year exhibition career with the
gallery before joining Waterhouse & Dodd in 2011.
A major monograph on the artist by Simon Olding (with a foreword by Mel
Gooding) was published in 1997 to coincide with his retrospective exhibition at
the Russell Cotes Gallery. Waterhouse & Dodd have published 4 catalogues of
his recent works. In his recent work, Brewster often uses a softer palette and
square forms which, although reminiscent of boats or islands, deserve to be
viewed in less representational terms. Brewster has had retrospective
exhibitions at the Russell–Cotes Art Gallery and Museum, 1997; the Royal West
of England Academy, 2001; and the Study Gallery of Modern Art, Poole, 2003,
amongst others. He has won numerous awards and has work in private, public and
corporate collections worldwide. Public collections include the Victoria &
Albert Museum, British Museum, Russell–Cotes Art Gallery and Museum, Arts
Institute at Bournemouth and Bournemouth University.
"My primary concern has always been with painting. I have never ceased to
be fascinated and enthralled by the tactile and evocative qualities of paint,
oil paint especially. Early on, I developed a particular interest in colour and
abstraction which is the key to my work, coupled with a lyrical and poetic
response to both nature and the medium.”