“There is something exquisitely contradictory about the mountains. They can be a brutal and unforgiving environment, so cold, so remote, yet so beautiful, so vast, so breath taking, so tranquil. We are not supposed to be here like this, certainly not at lunch. It’s an environment so alien to everyday banalities. Nature has been tamed to provide us with a dazzlingly and alluring playground for recreation and indulgence at the top of the world.

In this most recent body of work, I aim to create paintings that portray the moments that have evoked senses of tranquillity and fulfilment in the mountains. Ultimately, the painted locations and scenarios are places where we have loved, laughed, and made our own memories. These paintings are a portal to those places. The human form is absent, but they are full of humanity. We will return to experience these unique sensations and when we can’t, we can look at these paintings and be transported. It is not important where they are but the remembered feeling they induce. The paintings act like stage sets; ones where the action is about to or has just taken place. The lack of figures allows the viewer to enter the scene and import their memories.

Chairs rest in trampled snow as though in conversation, contemplating the impossible beauty of the location. They are waiting to embrace new visitors. They invite us to join. There are also moments of anticipation occurring when marvelling at the almost wilfully constructed, chaotic sculptural collection of skis and poles outside a mountain restaurant. Some lean precariously, some stand to attention other discarded on the floor. A riot of colour in the otherwise blinding white environment. Skis clack and click, adding noise to this organically enlarging mass of humanity. Like a writhing animal it emerges at lunch and gradually recedes into the afternoon. In my paintings, these forever-changing sculptures are caught in a moment.”

Written by Artist: Will Martyr