By Bonnie Gangelhoff
For 30 years, Doug Martin was a professional landscape photographer. He cherished the time 
spent capturing magnificent scenery in his native Colorado and beyond. Three years ago, while visiting his friend, painter Ralph Oberg, he asked if he could join him on a painting excursion. From that day forward, Martin was hooked. “I came home a changed person,” he says. Workshops followed with Oberg, Matt Smith, and Mark Daily. And landscapes continued to interest him, even though he switched from carrying a camera to paints and easel. “When I get away from the city, houses and hotels, I am in complete awe of the natural world,” Martin says.
His mission is to convey to the viewer “the moment,” or the sense of place he experiences when viewing a scene, whether he’s in the Rocky Mountains or standing on the Pacific Coast shoreline. “I don’t typically pick up my paints unless light has really grabbed my attention,” he says. “If I can capture a sense of place and the light, I feel like I have created a successful painting.” Martin’s paintings are on view this month at the annual Laguna Beach Plein Air Painting Invitational held at the Laguna Art Museum. He is represented by Blue Horse Gallery, Estes Park, CO; Breckenridge Gallery, Breckenridge, CO; Piñon Fine Art, Littleton, CO; Gilpin County Arts Association, Central City, CO; and Germanton Gallery, Germanton, NC.
Featured in “Artists to Watch” October 2006