KunstenaarSwedishgeb.1956
Karl Mårtens
2 actieve items
Karl Mårtens was born in San Francisco in 1956 to Swedish parents and grew up in Drottningholm, on the outskirts of Stockholm. The woods and wetlands around Drottningholm gave him early contact with the birdlife that would become the defining subject of his work. As a teenager he moved to Switzerland and later to Canada before returning to San Francisco, spending roughly twenty-four years outside Sweden before settling back in Stockholm.
For most of his adult life Mårtens worked as a graphic designer, running a design firm in Stockholm while painting on the side. In September 2010 he closed the firm and committed to painting full-time. The transition was decisive: within a few years his work had found representation at galleries in Sweden, England, and Scotland, and collectors across Europe and North America had taken notice.
His technique is immediately recognisable. He places handmade paper on the floor of his studio and works from above, using large Japanese and Chinese calligraphy brushes loaded with watercolor. The paper's texture and the way it absorbs pigment unevenly become active elements in each image. He sometimes applies salt to wet areas, which draws the pigment outward as it dries and creates tonal variation that no brush could produce. All of this happens fast, without reference photographs. Every bird is painted from memory.
The philosophical framework behind this approach comes from Zen Buddhist practice and the principles of Japanese archery, disciplines Mårtens studied alongside his painting. He has described the ideal state as one in which the mind is empty and intuition directs the brush without interruption. He has also led workshops in Zen calligraphy, where participants work with Chinese ink on paper to explore the same idea. The influence is traceable to the Qing dynasty painter Shih T'ao (1642-1707), who wrote on the primacy of the first brushstroke as an act of creation from nothing.
Subjects span the full range of European and Nordic birdlife: razorbills (tordmule), short-eared owls (jorduggla), snowy owls (fjälluggla), sparrowhawks (sparvhök), curlews (storspov), hoopoes (härfågel), blackbirds (koltrast), magpies (skata), great spotted woodpeckers (spillkråka), and herons, flamingoes, and pheasants. Works are held in private collections across Europe and North America. Gallery representation includes Galleri Duerr in Stockholm, Galleri Mats Bergman in Karlstad, Cricket Fine Art in London, Wykeham Gallery in Hampshire, John Davies Gallery in Gloucestershire, Hancock Gallery in Newcastle, Iona House Gallery in Oxfordshire, and Gladwell and Patterson in London. Limited-edition lithographs are published through Edition Vulfovitch and distributed through galleries across Sweden.
On the Swedish secondary market, Mårtens sells predominantly through Stockholms Auktionsverk Sickla, which handles roughly two-thirds of his auction lots on Auctionist, followed by Göteborgs Auktionsverk. Across 50 recorded lots, mixed-media works on paper have reached 8,594 SEK, while signed and numbered colour lithographs in editions of 150 to 290 prints sell consistently in the 1,400 to 4,250 SEK range. Currently 9 of his works are listed as active lots on Auctionist.