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Marty Spence

Drawing, Experimental, Literary, Non-Fiction, Painting, Paper / Book / Illustration, Photography, Prose, Visual / Media

"If I create from the heart, nearly everything works. If from the head, almost nothing."
Marc Chagall

About the Artist

 About The Artist Art is capturing a moment of time. A moment of one’s soul. That is why every piece of art is different even if we are looking at the same model or the same still life or landscape. It has to be different because the art is a reflection of who we are at the moment, and how we are relating to the object or person at that moment. In doing so, we are bringing our histories with us: Our past, present and hopes for the future.   I really don’t know what led me to art. I didn’t get there until much later in life. People were always important to me. My professional focus became at intensive study of the emotional development of people with an emphasis on the child. One drawing course led me to an equally intensive study of art. Now it seems I am putting together the love and study of people and life with the love and study of art. This has resulted in a fascination with portraits. Portraits go beyond the human and transcend into landscapes and nature. I offer you now some portraits of moments in time and a bit of my soul From The Gardeners House Collection of Fine Art Marty Spence martyspence@verizon.net 410-788-1732 voice or text Facebook: The Gardener’s House Collection of Fine Arts https://www.facebook.com/TheGardenersHouseCollectionOfFineArts/ Instagram: Marty Spence (@gardenerhousecollectionfineart) • Instagram photos and videos  Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/your/shops/MartysArtStudio/tools/listings

Marty Spence website GardenerHouseCollectionFineArt Marty Spence website The Gardener's House Collection of Fine Art Marty Spence website Maryland Art Galleries Mdartgalleries.com

Artist's Statement

For me art is capturing a moment in time. A moment of one's soul. That is why every piece of art is different even if we are all looking at the same model or the same still life or landscape. It has to be different because the art is a reflection of who we are at the moment, and how we are relating to the object or person at that moment. In doing so, we are bringing our histories with us: our past, present, and hopes for the future. I really don't know what led me to art. I didn't get there until much later in life. People were always important to me. My professional focus became an intensive study of the emotional development of people with an emphasis on the child. One drawing course led me to an equally intensive study of art. Now it seems I am putting together the love and study of people and life with the love and study of art. This has resulted in a fascination with portraits. Portraits go beyond the human and transcend into landscapes and nature. I offer you now some portraits of moments in time and a bit of my soul from Marty Spence Fine Art Studio.   

Featured Work

Photos

The Chesapeake Bay in Maryland is a waterman's beauty. A privilege to see the Sun set on her. This particular scene was captured by a casual fisherman at the days end and shows the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in the background. The photographer was a neighbor and joyfully gave me permission to try to paint the image. Bridges make good neighbors!
I fell in love with Calla Lilies. . Their grace and pure beauty captured my eye like no other. I arranged and re-arranged in my studio with every imaginable light. None seemed much to matter. The Calla Lily stood out however she was positioned. I spend hours with her in arranging and painting. All of those hours in her company produced nothing but "Much Peace". This painting happened to be created during a time of great unrest in our Country. 32 year old Heather Heyer was killed by a car intentionally driven by a white supremacist into a crowd of people who had been peacefully protesting in Charlottesville, Virginia. "Much Peace" was dedicated that day to Heather Heyer.
The tractor was housed in this barn. The tractor was used to cut the fields and plow the troughs for planting the seeds for corn and green beans. There were five children. One would dig the hole, one put the seed into the hole, one cover the hole, one water the hole and one to make sure nothing was missed.That was how this barn was known. It was the Tractor Barn and it holds many of those happy memories.
Brightly Shining is a rescue Thoroughbred described as "She will never make a good horse for anyone,,,no one will want her...no one will ever be able to train a wild horse like her..." They were wrong. She was taken home by horse owner and trainer Mike Keech, who was able to gently nurture her day after day with no expectations for nearly a year. The two bonded. Mr. Keech was able to train her resulting in Brightly Shining qualifying for the Washington D.C. International Horse Show and in time receiving receiving many ribbons and awards including 5th place year end award for Baltimore County Horse Show Association. She shines brightly but nothing is brighter then the love between horse and owner.
Maryland Strong is a commemorative original oil of a Thoroughbred rescued at her last stop before euthanasia because she was the "Horse that nobody wanted". She was adopted, nurtured for over a year, and retrained. She is used in Maryland Strong to represent the struggle of Covid 19. She has the Maryland map as her blaze, a mask to represent our efforts to protect from Covid prior to vaccine development, the number 19 on her saddle pad and a monocle allowing the horse to be the spectator. This was the year Pimlico was postponed from its traditional April run. The race ran in October with no spectators short of the horses.
Triple Jump is an original charcoal of three young woman having run riding together on the Maryland Country Side. This piece is beautifully framed. It has a companion piece which is done in oil of the same depicting the women riding in the snow. Any young rider will quickly identify with the joy these pieces depict.

Booking

martyspence@verizon.net