Martha Bator

"It felt like cheating; pastels were so much fun and so easy to work with."

Martha Bator

Like the Impressionists, whose work she admires, Martha Bator celebrates the images of everyday life and reminds us of the beauty that surrounds us. A visual diary of sorts, Martha Bator's paintings provide a glimpse into her life's journeys. Having spent 23 years abroad as the wife of an American diplomat, she is well traveled and has a wealth of slides and collectibles (including paintings from a former Miss Yugoslavia) to prove it. Her travels have included the Middle East, Central Europe, Paris, Brittany (a peninsula in the North of France), and locations along the Atlantic coast. The scenery and subjects in her pastel paintings, having been derived from such diverse locations, have the wonderful ability to stir in the viewer memories of his own travels or to take him places he has not been.

Martha Bator's artistic eye seems to find endless inspiration in her surroundings. She creates paintings with subjects ranging from a charming depiction of a shore strewn with colorful shrimp boats to a bold and colorful still life of patterned fabrics, copper, and ceramics. It is her still lifes, which she composes from objects of beauty collected during her travels, that bring her the most recognition. While some of her subjects are "found" and others evolve in the studio, they all benefit from her creative revisions to some degree. She often adds more color, simplifies the image, or focuses in on a particular area.

Despite the variety of subjects present in Martha Bator's work; however, there is a similarity in its strength of composition and its visual rhythm. Her attraction to patterns and arrangements bustling with visual stimulus is evident. There is a repetition of color and shape that keeps the eye ever moving as well as an abundance of diagonal lines. Even the slides that she takes merely for the purpose of reference are works of art. Her paintings also include evidence of her strokes, further enhancing their vitality.

Martha Bator, who describes herself as having dabbled in many mediums, first began using pastel as a means for creating sketches for her watercolors. She soon found, however, that they were to become her medium of choice. She says, "It felt like cheating; they were so much fun and so easy to work with."

Years later, in 1987, Martha Bator helped found the Southeastern Pastel Society, which includes members from all over the country, and has been the Vice President ever since. She is also a signature member of the Pastel Society of America and Knickerbocker Artists of USA. She has conducted numerous workshops, exhibited across the country, and had her work published in several publications. Her work has also brought her national honors and, recently, recognition by the Secretary of State for "Achievement by Georgia Women in the Visual Arts."