Featured Artist Corina St. Martin

Enjoy the delightful portfolio of Corina St. Martin. Visit her website to see more of her vibrant paintings.

 

 

I was born in Florida and grew up mostly in Wisconsin but currently call Indiana home. Ever since I was a kid I’ve had a deep love for animals. They are so fascinating and the fact that there are so many different species of life on this planet is truly wonderful.

 

 

My love for art is also something that I discovered as a kid. So the melding of the two has been a natural fit.

 

 

Though there have been many sidesteps along the way in finding the right medium and field to work in, for the past couple of years I’ve been painting in a sort of “pop art” style. Bright, vivid colors have found their way onto my canvases adding a fun element to the various animals being portrayed.

 

 

I paint pet portrait commissions of dogs, cats, birds, rabbits and colorful wildlife art! My hope is that through my paintings people will find the joy that animals bring to our amazing world.

 

 

I’ve been working as an artist in various mediums for the past 20 years. From architectural ceramics, to bronze sculpture, animation, graphic design, jewelry making, painting and drawing.

 

 

My work is ever evolving and I’m very excited about the future! One of the things that I’ll be working on soon is a series of new animal sculptures. I’ve really been wanting to get my hands back in the clay so I’m really looking forward to making some time to do just that.

 

 

I begin my paintings by gathering reference photos of the subject. (I also make the decision of whether or not it will be a collage painting. If it will, then I’ll gather the items that I’m going to adhere to the canvas.)

 

 

From there I will lay out the drawing until I get the look I’m after. I’ll either blow up my drawing and use tracing paper to transfer it to the canvas or I’ll use the grid system. After the drawing is looking how I want, then I’ll spray it with workable fixative.

 

 

From there I’ll do an under-painting to get rid of all the white and to lay in my values. Then I usually start with painting the eyes. Once they are looking good it feels like the painting comes to life and then the colors choose themselves pretty much.

 

 

Occasionally I’ll do color comps but I’ve done so many of these paintings that it kind of becomes second nature in choosing the colors. I primarily use Golden fluid acrylics. They spread very well and the colors are vibrant. Kids love the colors!

 

 

Corina St. Martin invites you to visit her Etsy shop and follow her on Twitter.