Dalkeith Palace to host exhibition by Paul Martin

The eighteenth century splendour of Dalkeith Palace will play host to an exhibition by Paul Martin this June.

The exhibition will feature the final works of this remarkable artist, seen for the first time, alongside a retrospective of 50 years of painting and printmaking.

Paul Martin began his studies in the late 1960s at Birmingham School of Art, a college dominated by Abstract Expressionism, before moving to the Royal Academy whose more traditional methods focused largely on life drawing. 

Dalkeith Palace. Credit: Buccleuch Trust

Finding neither approach entirely congenial, he developed his own style, predominantly figurative, but with an understanding that art is always, in John Berger’s phrase, a ‘burrowing under the apparent’.

He exhibited widely, both at home and abroad, most notably in the Netherlands and in Australia and garnered a number of significant awards, including the British Institution Prize for Printmaking and the Royal Academy Award for Drawing and Painting. 

His work is held in several important national collections, among them those of the British Museum, Williamson Museum, Royal Academy and the BBC.

Martin was also known for his icon writing and altarpieces, and examples of his work can be seen in the Church of the Ascension in Rugby, St Luke’s in London and St Gabriel’s in Glasgow.

The Pool of Bethesda. Credit: Paul Martin Estate

Where Echoes Rest. Credit: Paul Martin Estate

That 50 year passion for art was something Martin conveyed to his students during his long parallel career in education, including his 20 years as art master at Rugby School. During the last two decades of his life he was an inspirational and much-loved lecturer at Leith School of Art.

Where Echoes Rest is at Dalkeith Palace from the 27 – 29 of June. Entry to the exhibition is free.

Read more from the Life With series here.

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