Artist Focus - Martin Langston

Martin Langston

One of our featured artists this month is Martin Langston. You can visit Martins Feature window at the Wynd Gallery from January 19 - February 1 and find out more about Martin and his work below.

The Wynd Gallery is a co-operative art gallery run by local artists.

The gallery offers an ever-changing exhibition of contemporary prints, paintings, sculpture, jewellery, photography, ceramics and textiles.

The gallery promotes the Arts in Letchworth Garden City and provides an exciting venue suitable for artists working across a range of contemporary visual arts media.

Throughout the year our artists will share their work through our feature window programme

You are our current featured artist at the Wynd gallery, with our featured artist window. Please tell us about what we can expect to see when we visit the gallery?

The gallery itself is an eclectic mix of 30 member artists work, mine included. My window will feature my latest work which has recently been made using stencils and aerosol spray paints along with posca pens and household paint. The work is a contrast of a bright colourful abstract backgrounds with carefully controlled black stencil work applied over it. At a glance you can tell my influences are Pop Art and Street Art.

Can you tell us a little about your journey into art?

A misspent youth reading the Beano had me wanting to draw the Bash Street Kids as a job when I was a grown up. This led me to Art School where I discovered the Pop Art of Roy Lichtenstein He took images from comic books and put them in art galleries. That made a big impression on me. A 25 year career in graphic design, advertising and illustration left me feeling creatively unfulfilled. I took up art later to scratch the creative itch. A recent trip to Barcelona exposed me to a vibrant Street Art scene which also chimed and I sort of try to combine the Pop Art and Street Art influences. I like to think as an artist I have a highly tuned appreciation of the visual aesthetic. I can see the beauty in the often overlooked everyday ephemera like cereal boxes, bubble gum wrappers and comic strip art.

What materials or techniques do you most enjoy working with?

Good question: My USP is that I have rejected traditional art materials (with the exception of paint brushes ). No oil or acrylic paints here. I work mainly on ply board using household paint and Posca pens and spray paint. I also create images using drink cans which I cut up.

What’s one tool you couldn’t live without?

I'm giving you 3: Scalpel, Pencil and 2 foot metal Ruler.

Where do you draw inspiration from? Nature, people, emotions, or something else?

Another good question. I find architecture, poetry, literature, rock & pop music, sculpture, comic books, films, TV, cartoons and the works of mankind in general far more inspiring than nature. Don't get me wrong, I love nature, but I want to celebrate the works of Picasso, Jack Kirby, Tom Wolfe, The Ramones and Frank Lloyd Wright etc.

more than I want to paint a Lion or an Elephant.

What projects or ideas are you excited to explore next?

Well, David Bowie said an artist should always try to work slightly out of their depth. If you can feel your feet on the bottom you're not challenging yourself or growing creatively. Moving a little deeper so that you're not quite sure exactly how to do what you're trying to do or how it's going to come out is how you surprise yourself and how you'll often create your best work. I'm not a techy person at all so I'm moving into deeper waters with AI. I've recently started using it and some of the work in my feature window has been created with assistance from AI. These responses are not generated by AI though.

What’s one surprising fact about you that people might not expect?

I was once in a production of the musical Oliver!

Do you have a ritual or routine that helps you get into a creative mindset?

Not an everyday one really, but in the past I've been to galleries and seen great works by fantastic artists. That gets my creative juices flowing. It makes me feel that I can't waste another minute and must immediately get cracking and start new works.

Coffee, tea, or something else while you create?

Newcastle Brown Ale is my drug of choice.

What advice would you give someone who wants to start exploring craft or art themselves?

Not that I do this myself you understand, but I was told at art school to always carry a pen and a sketch book, and if you're waiting in a bus queue draw something you can see. IE: the old lady in the queue in front of you. Always draw with a pen. The temptation with a pencil is rub out and redraw. But it doesn't matter if you go wrong. Just draw small and start again. When you're done date the drawing/s. You'll learn to draw more confidently with a pen and when you look back over old dated drawings you'll see a real improvement in your work.