I can confirm The Fairview Art Collection holds a work from Jarrad Martyn, a John Stringer Award Winner in 2018. This award was organised and voted on by members of the Collectors Club.
The oil painting, New Year’s Day 1788 has a strong emotional connection to the present owner of The Fairview Art Collection who is a direct descendant of First Fleet convict, James Morrisby (23 January 1757 – 29 May 1839).
Emerging Perth artist Jarrad Martyn was commissioned in mid-2020 to paint the scene onboard the Scarborough as the First Fleet battled a raging storm on New Year’s Day in 1788 in honour of James Morrisby as it sailed up the East Coast of Tasmania.
“I was really interested in the figures in the stormy landscape and wanted to convey the panic of a ship being caught in a storm in a rugged sea. I’ve depicted a scene right at the front of the ship where the convicts are interacting with the guards in their red coats as the storm is about to break and then pass and, in the distance, you can see the snow on top of Mt Wellington indicating it was quite close to shore. So, I was trying to convey some of that harshness, some of that quick thinking that was required in a chaotic situation like this. The idea that nature is coming for us,” said Jarrad Martyn in an audio podcast after he had completed the painting.
Martyn was born in 1991 in Aberdeen Scotland to a teacher’s assistant Trish and Doug, a helicopter pilot.
Whilst completing an Honours Degree in Fine Art at Curtin University, Martyn demonstrated his artistic talent by interpreting images of disasters found in newspapers and online.
He used paintings to create a more sympathetic meaning and interpretation of those traumatic scenes. His thesis explored the fact we become desensitised to trauma through the exposure to many media images and his artwork helps bridge this psychological divide and provide more meaning.
His practice explores how different moments in history have been framed and how we engage with spaces after they have become abandoned. Through painting and installation, Martyn employs the principles of bricolage, 'something constructed from a diverse range of things’, to bring together imagery and research to create a more conversational meaning of the history being explored. The use of paint, which slips in-between figuration and expressionism encourages the audience to look longer to try and deduce what is unfolding and to ultimately consider how complicit they are prepared to be in that framing.
“I’ve also been thinking about how to use colour as a focal point and breaking it up into four tonal areas, from lightest light to darkest dark. If you look at the picture, there is an emphasis on both the landscape and the main figure being the centre beam of the lightest light and therefore the centre of the most drama. Colour in my art practice provides a sense of perspective and a focus on traditional realism in producing an interesting image rather than depicting reality.”
Martyn’s work is in many private and public collections, including Collectors Club members, the University of Western Australia, Edith Cowan University, Bunbury Regional Galleries, Curtin University Art Collection and the City of Perth. Martyn has exhibited in a number of art awards, most significantly winning the 2018 John Stringer Art Prize and the City of Joondalup Community Invitation Art Award Overall Acquisitive Award.
“I want to give viewers that sense of drama of being on a ship going to new lands. With the sky there is that romantic quality so also that sense of escapism that comes with using techniques from the old masters. It’s not entirely about negativity, it is also about positivity and possibilities. My work is about creating conversations.”
Martyn’s work New Year’s Day 1788 achieves this and is an important historic piece within the Fairview Collection by a contemporary West Australian artist.
- Writers:
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- Date written:
- 2024
- Last updated:
- 2024
