January  2002
  Artist of the Month:

Roberta Martin
Roberta was always interested in art, but didn’t receive any formal training until high school. She enrolled in as many art courses as possible to strengthen her skills as an artist. In her junior year, she applied to, and was accepted at, Monmouth College, which is now Monmouth University.

Several of her instructors at Monmouth influenced her work. In her freshman year, one of the assignments was to complete several drawings of natural forms. She decided to do charcoal renderings as well as some small watercolor paintings of seashells. After critiquing her work, Professor DiMattio encouraged her to continue making drawings and paintings using these forms. He also suggested she venture into NYC and visit the Met to view the works of Georgia O’Keeffe. She was surprised to see that her own style of painting resembled that of the famous artist. Roberta, like O’Keefe, had concentrated on enlarging objects, such as shells. Shading these objects correctly to show dimension became a significant element in her work. She continued to practice these skills in each new drawing or painting.

In 1974, she received her art education degree, and four years later, was offered a teaching position in the Hazlet Public Schools. She has been teaching art there ever since.

While teaching at Raritan HS in the early 90’s, Roberta’s work began to evolve. Rendering details correctly now became an obsession, thus making her drawings more realistic. She feels that this change was inevitable because she was now teaching art to older students. The quality of her drawing skills had to become more precise to meet those students’ demands.

During the summer of 1998, Roberta felt it was time to show her paintings to the public. Pearl Arts and Crafts in Woodbridge offered to show works of local artists in their store. She was pleased with the positive comments from customers who viewed her paintings. Several weeks later, she entered the annual art show in Plainfield, then later that month had two of the paintings on display in a Metuchen gallery. All of the paintings were based on photos of flowers she took in Bermuda, and of flowers in her own garden. The settings on her new camera, allowed her to take close-ups, leaving the background blurred. This technique is something she carries over in her work today.

Roberta is now a member of the Edison Arts Society, and the Artist/Teacher Network. She has had her paintings displayed, (along with the other members of the groups), at Clifton Art Gallery, and Ringwood Manor Gallery. Currently, she has a painting on display at the Edison Arts Society Gallery, which is located in the Sheraton Edison Hotel in the Raritan Center.