About Martina

           

 Martina Furlong was born in Co.Wexford, Ireland, where she now resides after many years living in London, UK. She received a BA (Hons) in Fine Art Painting from Limerick School of Art and Design in 1996.                                                       

Martina is currently creating a body of work for an upcoming three person exhibition in Tramore, Co.Wexford in April/May 2025. The theme for these paintings is water and the sea. They are also a continuation of Martina's exploration of our spiritual ties to the landscape, and how it links us to our ancestors, history and culture. They tell the stories the land and sea holds, for Martina, and celebrates the connection between us, the earth and life beyond. This is where our ancestors sat, where they harvested their food, celebrated, lamented and were laid to rest. Their ancient conversation, now whispers in the wind.                                                                                                                 

 Martina paints colourful, textured abstracts and landscapes, mostly in oils but also uses acrylics and mixed media. They show her love of colour, shape, line and movement. While Martina's paintings are influenced by the things she sees and experiences daily, as a painting progresses her unconscious takes over and it becomes an organic, intuitive process.

In her work she likes to mix reality with memories, imagination and intuition and paint her own interpretation of it. She exaggerates colour, applies layer upon layer of paint, then works back into the surface with various tools as well as pallet knives and brushes to create sensuous works of art with a wonderful tactile quality.

In 2022, Martina completed a new series of paintings for a solo exhibition at The Kenny Gallery, Galway. This series was a continuation of her works inspired by her research into spiritual hunger, the mystery of being human, looking internally and connecting to nature. In February 2020 Martina finished a year long course in Embodied Mindfulness as part of that research. She explored these areas further in 2021 with courses on "The Tibetan Book Of The Dead" with Embodied Philosophy and "Awakening The Fearless Heart" with Tara Brach, facilitated by NICABM.

Her abstract landscapes are a metaphor for our internal landscape, the sacred place where we process all our daily thoughts, be they negative or positive. The use of dark and bright colours side by side reflects the quest to find a balance between the darkness and light within, as we try to navigate our own unique world.

The paintings are built up layer by layer, overlapped, scraped back and drawn into using various tools, giving a sense of history to each piece.

 

https://www.martinafurlong.com/pages/exhibitions

 

Email:mfurlong17@googlemail.com