MARTIN LANGSTON

I was born in the early 1960’s in Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire. My grandfather worked at Odhams Press in Watford, which was a very big print town at that time. In the mid 60’s he started to bring home comics which had been printed there. They were called, Pow, Wham and Smash. I was fascinated by comics, and read any comic I could get hold of cover to cover. I developed an appreciation of the artwork and could recognise in the Beano that the artist who drew The Bash Street Kids also drew Minnie the Minx and the 3 Bears. I was starting to think that drawing comics might be something I would like to do when I grew up and left school.

I decided to start right away, and in my bedroom began drawing my own comics quite badly. The day came to leave school I started college at the Watford School of Art to learn how to draw properly.

We did life drawing, screen printing, etching, photography and oil painting. I learned there these people called Pop Artists were painting Comics on canvas and that the paintings were being hung in galleries. And that was where it all began.

I left Art School trained to be a Graphic Designer and I worked in that industry for about 25 years.
I found it creatively unrewarding and eventually quit.

Recently I picked up the brushes again and found that painting scratched the creative itch that had been missing in my previous career.

With the exception of paintbrushes, I have rejected traditional art materials. I don’t use oils or acrylics, I paint using ordinary household emulsion. The stuff you would paint your bedroom walls with, and I don’t like painting on canvas either. I use hardboard, MDF or plywood, often recycling builders waste. I buy my art materials from Wickes, Homebase or B&Q.