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Lucy

Lucy Martin's greatest joy has always been exploring the natural world. Her attraction to the strangeness and mystery found in nature has led her to focus in recent years on the marvels of the kingdom of fungi. Lucy paints mushrooms as very much part of their environment, rather than as isolated specimens. The decaying leaves, acorns, fir cones and moss, the lichen and mossy stump, are as important as the mushrooms themselves in her compositions. She thinks of her paintings as small landscapes--glimpses of the forest floor.

She began painting mushrooms when she moved to the Santa Cruz mountains in 2006. The abundant winter rainfall and the great botanical diversity in this area makes it a wonderful place to find mushrooms. Many of her paintings are set in these mountains, but she has also found subjects for paintings in Mendocino, the Sierras, Washington state, the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, and Pennsylvania. Now she lives in Sonoma County and hopes to travel more in coming years to discover new mushrooms.

Lucy Martin has been drawing and painting most of her life. She is largely self-taught, with occasion formal study. She studied gouache technique with the artist and illustrator Maryjo Koch, in Bonny Doon, California. She paints in gouache and watercolor, with occasional use of colored pencil. Lucy hopes to convey her deep love for nature, especially for what is often overlooked: those small, unexpected and delightful things we can discover when we look closely.

She had an article published in the magazine The Botanical Artist in September 2018 called “Creating Density and Depth with Gouache.” Her article on Gouache Technique will be published in the American Society of Botanical Artists book, Botanical Art Techniques, to be released in September 2020.

You can see Lucy Martin's work at the Sebastopol Gallery, 150 N. Main Street, Sebastopol, CA 95472 (707)829-7200, where she is a member, and at the Calabi Gallery, 456 Tenth Street, Santa Rosa, CA 95401 (707)781-7070.

Lucy's new painting, “The Standing Stones of Carnac” has been accepted to the “2020 de Young Open” exhibit at the de Young Fine Arts Museum in San Francisco. Due to the public health situation, exhibition dates are to be announced. 

 

Previous Shows
Upcoming Events

Art Trails Open Studio
Oct. 12 & 13, 19 & 20, 2019

Painting, “Small Oak Branch with Lichens” will be exhibited at the American Society of Botanical Artists 22nd Annual International Show
September 22 - November 17, 2019, Marin Art and Garden Center, Ross, CA.

Art Trails, Open Studio, Oct 13 - 14 and 20 - 21, 2018

“Blue Oak Branch with Lichens” exhibited in the American Society of Botanical Artists show, Botanical Art Worldwide - America's Flora, May - October 2018 at the U.S. Botanical Garden in Washington D.C.

“Valley Oak with Oak Galls and Lichens” exhibited at the American Society of Botanical Artists 21st Annual International show, September - December 2018 at Wave Hill Botanical Garden in New York

Solo Show, “Microcosms: A Closer Look at Mushrooms and Lichens,” Heron Gallery, Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation, 900 Sanford Road, Santa Rosa, CA
May – August 2018

Solo Show at Helen Crocker Russell Botanical Library, “Looking Closely: the Hidden World of Mushrooms and Lichens,” Golden Gate Park, San Francisco
January –- April 2018

 “Bigleaf Maple with Mushrooms” awarded the Silver Medal at American Society of Botanical Artists Triennial Show at the New York Botanical Garden, “Out of the Woods,” November 2017 - April 2018.

Art Trails: Sonoma County Open Studio Art Tour.
October 14 – 15, 21 – 22, 2017
http://sonomacountyarttrails.org

Art Trails
Sonoma County Art Tour
October 10-12 and 17-18, 2015
http://sonomacountyarttrails.org/sonoma-county-art-trails-2015/

Exhibit at Santa Cruz Museum of Art And History: “Wild Mushrooms: Functional Fungi”
November 6, 2015 - March 20, 2016
Opening Friday November 6, 2015: 5 - 9 PM

Solo Show - “Secrets of the Forest: Portraits of Wild Mushrooms”
Point Reyes National Seashore, Red Barn Exhibition
May - August 2015

Artists Inspired by the Natural World
Calabi Gallery
456 Tenth St., Santa Rosa CA
January - March 2015
calabigallery.com

Art Trails
Sonoma County Art Tour
October 11-12 and 18-19, 2014

Weird, Wild and Wonderful (Juried)
Second New York Botanical Garden Triennial Exhibition
New York Botanical Garden
2900 Southern Blvd. Bronx, New York
April 19 - September 21, 2014

 

 

Sebastopol Center for the Arts
ART AT THE SOURCE
Open Studio Art Tour
May 31 - June 1 and June 7 - 8, 2014
Sonoma County, CA

16th Annual International Exhibition of the American Society of Botanical Artists (juried)
Horticultural Society of New York
September 20 - November 22 2013
http://asba-art.org/

Cultural Council of Santa Cruz
Open Studio Art Tour (Juried)
2009 - 2013
Home Studio, Felton, CA

Diversity in the Botanical World: Works by the Northern California Society of Botanical Artists
May - June 2013
Helen Crocker Russell Library of Botanical Art
Strybing Arboretum, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco
http://www.sfbotanicalgarden.org/

Filoli 15th Annual Botanical Art Exhibition (juried)
April - June 2013
www.filoli.org

Solo show Emerging from the Underworld: Portraits of Wild Mushrooms
May - June 2013
The Bone Room Presents
1573 Solano Avenue, Berkeley CA
www.boneroom.com/

Kings Mountain Art Fair (juried)
September 1, 2 & 3, 2012
www.kingsmountainartfair.org

Secrets of the Forest: Portraits of Wild Mushrooms
An Exhibit of Paintings at the Helen Crocker Russell Botanical Library
Golden Gate Park, San Francisco
January - April, 2012

Kings Mountain Art Fair (juried)
September 3,4 & 5 2011
www.kingsmountainartfair.org

Women Illustrating Nature (juried)
Galeria Tonantzin
San Juan Bautista
June - July 2011

Commission to do artwork for poster and t-shirt
for 2010 Mycological Society of San Francisco Fungus Fair

 

 

Her painting “Lichens of Mallorca” will be exhibited this fall in the American Society of Botanical Artists  23rd Annual International Exhibit at Wave Hill, New York. September-December 2020.

Lucy's painting, “The Standing Stones of Carnac” will be included in the “2020 de Young Open” exhibit at the de Young Fine Arts Museum in San Francisco. Exhibition dates are to be announced.

 

 

 

 

 

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