Paris is like walking into a living museum, it has inspired artists from around the world for centuries. For that reason, we wanted to showcase artists that were inspired by Paris and its culture. Our current exhibit is featuring a study of watercolors by Jack Martin. Jack finds his inspiration in the street of Paris. He is showcasing a collection of watercolors focused on some of the most breathtaking Parisian bridges.

Jack’s Bio

In pursuing the medium of watercolor I find ever more compelling and entrancing the qualities of color, light, reflection, luminosity and form as they appear and reappear in the visual world. Iʼm especially moved by the landscapes, seascapes, and architecture I observe during our travels to western Europe. Most of these have been to France and to Scotland.

Indeed, so much of my inspiration flows from a deep attachment to each of these countries. As a young graduate student I lived for a year in Brittany, but I also spent some of my time in Paris and other provinces. As for Scotland, it is the land of my father, who was my first artistic mentor. What I rediscovered over the last several years in visits to Scotland is the utterly awesome beauty of the Western Highlands – the incredibly volatile climate and shifts within hours of wind-driven purple skies and then brilliant rainbows and sunshine.

As a young child my earliest drawings and paintings earned me a scholarship to the Art Institute of Chicago. My serious study of watercolors, however, began relatively late in life when winding down my career as a clinical psychologist.

I now aspire to expand and to improve my palette and repertory, to study and to learn, knowing that the perfection I seek is beyond my reach.

My goal always in painting as well as in life is to make something special out of the ordinary. And I take seriously Andrew Wyethʼs axiom: “Paint what you see, paint what you know, and paint what you love.”