Los Angeles-based painter Heather Gwen Martin works at the edge of hard abstraction — where color becomes almost physical, with flourishes of elegant movement akin to dancing. Her palette is hot and bright, with hand-mixed tones that play off each other in astonishing ways, and certain shades can only truly be seen in person. We spoke with Heather about color, neuroscience and what it feels like to be inside the space of a painting. Her six exclusive Haystack editions are available now, exclusively on Haystack.
Heather Gwen Martin’s studio. Photograph courtesy of the Artist.Your palette is unmistakably your own — hot, bright and mixed entirely by hand. How do you approach building a color combination, and how do you know when it’s right?
I love color and being immersed in a field of it when making a painting. Colors sometimes come from a memory, or from the color of a particular object as a specific light hits it at a certain moment. Many times, the color from one painting influences the next, where there is a curiosity for more exploration. How colors work together is about feeling, instinct and creating space and movement.
You’ve spoken about your interest in neuroscience and how we respond to visual stimuli. What do you hope happens — physically or cognitively — when someone stands in front of one of your works for the first time?
I believe in abstraction as a means of communication. It is a language in which there are physiological responses — voluntary and involuntary, conscious and unconscious. The responses to color, form and scale are tied to our unique physical being and our unique experiences. Within abstraction there is a place for connection, in the elusive space of the in-between, where meaning is not concrete but fluid.
Your paintings sit at the edge of hard abstraction but always retain the mark of the hand. How do you navigate that tension between precision and gesture — and how did that translate into the print process?
Making a painting feels like an act of endurance. It is a play between intention and the nature of my hand. The movements are very slow, and there is a drag and resistance with the pull of the brush against the linen. It is both precise and muscular. The linocut portion of the prints is physically very similar to making my paintings. There is a lot of resistance from the linoleum and a real slow carve happening. It feels slow and reckless at the same time. Painting ink on film for the silkscreen sections feels wild and out of control. It is fun, but so much faster than how my arm paints — just the nature of the slick materials. It feels closer to drawing, if I am doing quick drawings, but still faster.
Scale is central to your practice — your compositions are consistently asymmetrical and askew, with forms that seem to swell and move. How do you think about guiding the viewer’s eye through a composition?
When painting, it is as though I am inside the space of the painting. I think of forces moving in and out of space around me — some at lightning speed, others at a glacial pace. While each composition is complete in itself, there is the idea that this space continues beyond, possibly infinitely. Energies expand and contract, push forward and recede, and in the end there is a strange balance.
Your editions will end up in homes, at eye level, lived with every day. Does knowing that change what you want the prints to do — compared to a large-scale painting in a gallery or museum context?
The intimacy of smaller works is wonderful. In living with the work, there is occasion for it to reveal itself in different ways, and for a relationship with the work to evolve. So much can open up and shift with time.
Interested in adding a Heather Gwen Martin edition to your collection? Her six exclusive editions are available now, exclusively on Haystack. Click here to learn more about Heather Gwen Martin.
