EASTER comes early this year and Tamar Valley artist Mary Martin?s Spring Exhibition is a timely celebration of the oncoming surge of this most pleasant of seasons. In contrast to her last exhibition which expressed the stark glitter and brilliance of winter, this new collection shows the profusion of burgeoning growth across the Tamar Valley. The brushwork depicts its cultivated slopes luminous with bright daffodils and its sheltered tributaries embellished with blossom and uncurling ferns. Since graduation from the Royal Academy Schools and her return to St Dominick in the Tamar Valley, Mary?s paintings have become synonymous with her native valley. She continues to paint out-of-doors throughout the seasons. Her work reflects the tenuous and shifting balance between man and nature, between the geometrical strips of crops and the encroaching woodland enveloping the derelict narcissi and strawberry gardens, hard won from the wild wood by earlier generations. Mary?s paintings are richly imbued with a sense of place, but it is her exhilarating portrayal of light and luxuriant use of colour that give the work a timeless atmosphere and universal appeal. Narcissi spreading out from once regimented rows glimmer on the sun-dappled woodland floor. In commercial poly-tunnels, beds of overblown anemones become jewel-like in the diffused light. Downriver, below the few surviving market gardens, the strengthening spring sun glares off yet another incoming tide. All the magic of the Tamar Valley is evoked in Mary Martin?s colourful and strong compositions. The 81 paintings are on view at St Dominick Parish Hall, St Dominick near Cotehele. The exhibition opens 2pm on Saturday, then every day 11am to 6pm from Sunday, March 27 to Sunday, April 3.
