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THE ART OF MARTHA FITZGERALDMartha I. Fitzgerald has been drawing and painting since she was a child. She grew up in Oklahoma and Texas, and after graduation from high school in 1952, moved to the West Coast and resided in Oregon and Northern California, in Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay area, until March, 2000, when she retired and moved to Taos. During the years before retirement, she worked and attended art school part-time. She studied art at Sacramento City College in California, where several of her works were purchased by the College for its permanent collection. She received an Associate Degree in fine art from Mendocino Community College in the early 1970’s and also attended painting classes at Santa Rosa Community College Extension and University of California Extension in San Francisco. She attended life drawing and painting classes at the De Young Museum in San Francisco. While at Sacramento City College, she studied oil painting with well-known Sacramento artist Gregory Kondos. Color and form are her inspiration, and she paints in both watercolor and oil. Her work is characterized by innovative composition and vivid color. She paints in an abstracted realism style and believes that a painting must be more than simply a copy of a subject or fancy brushwork, but should express emotion and the artist’s inner instincts and feelings. She feels that composition is basic, expresses abstract form, and is the most important part of a painting in addition to its execution. She seeks to express the innate spiritual qualities of form, movement, color, and strength that are manifested in the natural world. Her subjects presently include Native American pow wow dancers, Anasazi ruins at Mesa Verde, Canyon de Chelly, and the Hopi Mesas and New Mexico landscapes and rock formations in the areas near Ghost Ranch and Abiquiu. She is experienced in painting the human figure and also paints abstractions. She has shown her work at various galleries in California, at the Millicent Rogers Museum, and Taos Museum. She is a signature member of the Taos National Society of Watercolorists, and her paintings were included in the National Society shows in 2002, 2006, and 2008. She also is a member of the Taos Art Organization and participated in the Taos Studio Tour in the fall of 2008. Her work may be viewed at her studio in her home in El Prado, New Mexico, by appointment.
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