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​Sold Original Artworks

Here you can find some of my original artworks that have already found a home.   Sometimes I make limited edition prints of some of my works in order to share the painting and it's meaning with a wider audience.  There is of course only one original but my prints are a great alternative.  Take a look at my prints page.

Like many artists I do paint other versions of my paintings as I did for King Charles III to view at Spencer House.  So you would be in good company if you wanted a new or slightly different version of a painting you sadly missed out on.  

Compassionate Voyage

The painting was completed during a six-month inpatient stay at the Bethlem Royal Hospital whilst I underwent intensive compassion-focused therapy for Complex PTSD.  My therapist inspired the painting when she explained the discovery of the brain’s neuro-plasticity.  Building new neuro-pathways through the application of compassion-focused therapy took me on a painful voyage to learn how to hold my trauma differently in an effort to alleviate my suffering.
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With every session of therapy, self-reflection and acceptance, these new compassionate neuro-pathways  mutually supported each other as they replaced old trauma and threat focused pathways.  This progressive approach set me on a compassionate voyage of healing.  

Using 60 dark and light tones of hand mixed greens the composition has a clear direction of travel.  I hope the painting will inspire the viewer to embark on their own compassionate voyage,  to reflect on their own suffering, and to find the courage to take small steps towards healing.

Acrylic on canvas 30"x40" ​SOLD

Compassionate Breakthrough

This painting was conceived during a session of therapy where I was encouraged to leave the battlefield in my mind and walk towards the light. 

My perfect nurturer, therapist and I held hands.  As I counted down from ten to zero we stepped towards the light, feeling the ground beneath us.  This was a disorientating experience as my mind warped with painful images and intense emotions, leaving a place that had become part of my inner landscape.  At zero we passed through the light and came back to 2018; a 12 year journey.  It was an exhausting and deeply painful experience.

Again, painted in greens with desert colours and Afghan skies it is perhaps my most technically demanding painting taking over 200 hours to complete. 
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Acrylic on canvas 30"x40" SOLD

Paper Aeroplanes

Paper Aeroplanes was an image that appeared to me during a session of therapy at the Anxiety Disorders Residential Unit,  the Bethlem Royal Hospital (Bedlam).

The movement in the painting comes in the form of paper aeroplanes which depict five painful emotions of sadness, anger, shame, guilt and anxiety, trying to rest and be accepted within a compassionate landscape.   I have sincerely tried to emotionally feel the paper aeroplanes landing, yet to date the process is met with overwhelming hot gusts of the five painful emotions which act together to give the paper aeroplanes lift so they remain in perpetual motion.  Although they haven't landed yet my motivation and commitment offers them courage to do so.

Green is the colour of compassion and hence the colour of the landscape.  The lotus flower suggests the balance of mind, body, spirit and the potential for compassionate rebirth.  A flower of such beauty which blossoms from the mud resonates with my own struggle through trauma whilst striving to write a different ending to the one within which I currently sit.   The 28 tiles of the runway and moon halo around the lotus acknowledges the lunar cycle and regulation of emotions.   The number 44 at the base of the runway is simply my age when I painted the painting and is a nod toward compass bearings you see on all runways.  
The window represents my eyes, as eyes to my soul where this scene takes place.  
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Acrylic on canvas 30"x40" ​SOLD

Compassionate Voyage II

Following the sale of Compassionate Voyage, I painted a subtly different version of it for HRH King Charles III to view at Spencer House.  The meaning of the painting is the same however with a very slight change to the composition and as none of the colours are out of the tube it does have a different feel.

Acrylic on canvas 30"x40" SOLD

Lustful Ruminations

This painting was completed in my room during another admission to the Bethlem Royal Hospital (Bedlam).  

Rumination is a conjuring trick of the threatened mind. It convinces you that solace and calm are possible through repetitive cognitive reasoning. However, in reality, it prevents you from wholeheartedly opening up to the difficult emotions that lay behind the theme in question.  It continually replays images and thoughts in your mind in a forlorn hope of  rewriting the past and shaping the future.  It inhibits our true compassion to hold our distress without judgement, warmth and wisdom.

Lustful rumination is based on an interlocking 12 sided shape.  I designed it in such a way that the shape is actually impossible in three dimensions, a tricky the mind, just like rumination.  The colour choices are deliberately lustful and reminiscent of Chanel lipsticks.

When overwhelmed with trauma and suffering it is entirely natural to ruminate about a better, or indeed, perfect  life.  A perfect life with the perfect partner to share it with, the perfect job, money and power.   In lustful rumination you can avoid life, suffering and all responsibility.  Even entertain out-of-reach or forbidden relationships whilst seeking safety, intimacy and love where your desires and needs are met and your wounds healed.  I wonder if your Lustful Ruminations are any different to mine?  

Acrylic on canvas 30"x40" ​SOLD

Free Spirited 

This painting is very special in that unlike so much of my work it was painted "in the moment" and was allowed the freedom to just be and evolve throughout the creative process.   I think the result really is free spirited.

Heavily textured through the use of a palette knife in wet oil paint, and with a very high pigment loading of my own mix of blues using the most precious and expensive Lapis Lazuli it appears to vibrate with an energy of it's own.  

The figure is whatever you want it to be.  It evolved as the painting matured; just like we do.  Maybe you feel your own free spirit in it.  Maybe it is a reminder to find that free spirt within you if you have lost touch with it amongst the trials and tribulations of life's journey.  

Oil on canvas 30"x 40" SOLD (Now in the Bahamas - International Art Collector)

Kajaki

This painting follows on from Lustful Ruminations with a pattern motif still evoking a never-ending mental process of going over the same issues in a hope of making sense of the past.  

In the aftermath of Afghanistan I turned to art to express in a visual way the emotions, feelings, thoughts and meanings associated with that period of my life.

It is a beautiful country and I have tried to reflect that in this piece named after a village in the north of Helmand Province which has particular significance for me.  In my own mix of blue I used a large amount of one of the most expensive and rare pigments in the art world, Lapis Lazuli, obtained from the semi-precious stone mined in Afghanistan.  Using a pigment from a part of the world I cared so much about and transforming it into a meaningful work of beauty is my own way of re-framing the past and remembering the people of that land.

Oil on canvas 30"x 40" SOLD

Purchased by Philip and Catherine Mould for their private collection.  "Martin's work gives us great pleasure.  It sits on our stair wall and radiates intelligence and beauty.  It also causes many to linger, engage and question". https://philipmould.com

War Flag

​This is the War Flag of the British Army.  It is in the ratio of 5:3 rather than 2:1 like the Union Flag (commonly referred to as the Union Jack).

The words inscribed into the wet paint read, "As bloodied colours are freedom's stain,  Shattered limbs and hidden wounds remain".  These are my own words and my personal reflection on the legacy of war.  The blood shed on the battlefield in making the ultimate sacrifice is freedom's stain. The cost of that freedom marks our battle colours and soaks into our national consciousness.  For the Servicemen and Servicewomen who sustain life changing injuries there remains the enduring physical and mental injuries of war.  For those that lost a loved one or care for a wounded veteran the hidden wounds often run just as deep.  This is as true today as it ever was. 

​Originals of this composition can be commissioned upon request. £4800.  Acrylic on canvas.

Onward Christian Soldiers

The painting depicts a lone soldier (in brown) marching as to war following his call to duty. The halo (in orange) around the Christ beckons him forward as he marches over the green fields in obedience.  In the top corners of the painting are God as the eternal circle, and the Holy Spirit as the wind passing through a window, representing the Holy Trinity.  

This is a love story on a biblical scale.  Whilst the painting deliberately makes a strong reference to the moment of Christ's crucifixion, it was painted with a wider spiritual message in mind.  Sacrificial love puts your own wants to one side to serve another.  "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends."  Many servicemen reflect upon their faith at times of conflict and perhaps question the notion of being slain whilst ​serving their country.  In overcoming their own fear they routinely  put themselves in harm's way or make the ultimate sacrifice.  Sacrificial love is as true today as it ever was.

The white crosshairs extending from the crucifix suggest setting your own sights on such love, obedience and sacrifice. 
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Acrylic on canvas 30"x40" ​SOLD

Never Ending Story

The inspiration for the painting came from my struggles in coming to terms with Complex PTSD and my subsequent medical discharge from the Army.

The initial focus of the painting are the red tears in perpetual rotation set within an eyeglass of a periscope.  Just as a periscope restricts the viewer to a rather narrow field of view, I found that I too had become fixated on a limited range of issues surrounding my injury.  My prolonged bouts of despair brought about by intense and disturbing rumination about my condition, recovery, future employment and wellbeing became a never ending story playing and replaying in my mind.  
 
I have now started to broaden my outlook and explore other areas of life happening all around me.  The blue window and the surrounding sunshine in the rest of the painting depict an optimism and appetite for the future.  The blue pathway over the moated rampart in green invites the viewer to voyeuristically look into the periscope and perhaps reflect upon what areas of their life they have become fixated on at the expense of the bigger picture. 

Acrylic on canvas 30"x40" ​SOLD (Private Gallery)

26 Weeks in Bedlam

During my first 26 weeks in Bedlam (Bethlem Royal Hospital) my therapist encouraged me to put compassionate full stops at the end of trauma memories.  For so long the same intrusive thoughts and flashbacks had been living rent-free as unwanted guests in my mind.  Learning about compassion helped me face distress, tolerate it, and with warmth and non-judgement, I was able to connect with my compassionate self and inner-wisdom and hold my traumas differently.  For the first time in 7 years of treatment I put compassionate full stops on the most painful of traumas. 

Each full stop adorning the window represents a week of therapy in Bedlam.  The steps before the window invite the viewer to walk up to the window and see through past trauma and consider the opportunities presented by a values driven life.  The colour palette and shape of the window suggest travel to foreign lands, spices, fruits, and dyed fabrics hinting at a growing confidence to look to the future and experience a wider common humanity.  Reaching out and sharing our very existence is vital to our well-being and recovery.  No need to hide away anymore.
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Acrylic on canvas 30"x40" ​SOLD

Arousal

When we are aroused we become awakened and our senses become heightened as we prepare for action.  In this painting a swelling rises out of the centre kindling a gentle heat firing up the emotional alertness and anticipation of what is to come. 

This is not however an arousal of a perceived threat, rather it is the arousal stirred up from sexual attraction.  The first blush, the first desire, the unexplored.  Heart beating faster, heat and lust.  Every fibre within feeling an urgent energy flowing through it.  

Deliberately painted with warm lustful reds as the arousal continues I see the cool blues also turning red.  

​Acrylic on canvas 30"x40" SOLD

Opportunity 

Following on from White Out and getting back to colour I painted an optimistic textured piece in celebration of the creativity and curiosity in seeking out opportunity in its many forms.  

The painting shows how everyone and everything is interconnected but not always in ways you might think.  When your eye follows this painting you become aware of the transition between shape and colour and retain some notion of where you started.  But as you get deeper into the painting you will notice more about changes in tone and opacity.  These subtleties give you the opportunity to take a fresh look at where you find yourself in the painting.  Does it now feel different to where you started?  Does and opaque yellow next to translucent indigo next to a transparent violet feel different to three opaque colours close together?  

So many possibilities and therefore so many opportunities.  If that is true in the painting then it must be true in the flow of life.  We of course lose sight of this from time to time so this painting is a reminder to us all that we do have choices and in making such choices we have the opportunity to learn, love and flourish.  

Oil on canvas 30"x40" SOLD

Thin Ice

Inspired by the challenges we all face due to human caused climate change so startlingly articulated in the latest report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

It really feels like we are all on thin ice.  Symbolic of the plight of polar bears, "Thin Ice" is the very fracturing of sea ice and glaciers falling into the abyss. This affects all living things.  It is not just a human tragedy. 

We also find ourselves on thin ice when our actions and behaviours are challenged.  It was a warning yelled at me often when I was a child.  My brother and I spent a lot of time skating on thin ice, pulling up our socks and turning over a new leaf!!!


Part of my Compassionate Voyage series.









​Acrylic on canvas 30"x40" SOLD

Blue Consciousness 

Blue Consciousness is inspired by our true human essence as experienced through the profound beauty of our deepest instincts. Instincts that vibrate and shine brightly through our spirit.  A heavily textured painting executed in the finest Michael Harding oil paints all hand mixed by me to generate a painting that has an ethereal glow.

I wonder if you were to connect with that consciousness within you, you too might feel a pulsating rhythm that is wise, loyal and uniquely you.  Your essence.  




Oil on canvas 30"x40" SOLD

Optimism

Using a limited palette of Michael Harding oil paints I wanted to paint the sensation, or put another way, the felt sense of looking out to sea from the cliffs of Devon and Cornwall at the sunrise and sunset.  The green blues of the sea married harmoniously with the yellow reds of the sun.  (Really must be seen to appreciate the vibrancy and texture of the colours).

Whichever coastline is nearest to you it is hard not too feel a little happier with life and even optimistic when breathing in the beauty of Creation.  There is something restorative and reassuring about the reliability of the tides of the oceans and the setting and rising of the sun.  

A new day brings us an opportunity to make an new intention.   This work reminds us that we can choose the "light touch" of optimism to accompany us everyday.  

Original oil on canvas 70cm x 100cm  SOLD

Resilience

To date, this is my only mixed media piece. 

This work is made up of 76 words.  The threat based emotions and feelings are in Red.  Compassion based values are in Green (the complementary colour).  Only one word, Resilience, is in Blue.  Resilience is the bridge we must cross countless times a day to save ourselves from living permanently in a mind-set of suffering.  

Our tricky mind with the evolutionary conflict brought about by the thinking brain of our frontal cortex sitting uncomfortably with our old reptilian brain causes us to embrace resilience as one of the key skills of living a valued driven life, hard as the human condition is.  

If you look carefully you will see PTSD appearing 11 times in Black representing the thread woven throughout my emotional landscape.  This work will particularly resonate with anyone who has PTSD or has experienced life changing trauma. 

However, I am confident we can all relate to the emotions and feelings illustrated here.  Resilience is our Fulcrum.  We can bounce back.  We can respond.  We can tip the balance back in out favour.  

​This work has taken me well over 300 hours to complete.  




Original Mixed Media  30"x40" SOLD
in a bespoke handmade frame by QED and glazed with museum glass (TRUVUE).

Lovingly Intertwined 

When lovingly Intertwined in mind, body and spirit all parts can truly touch to the extent the union of two really does become one.  Limbs entangle and explore, thoughts can be expressed without words and a sense of wellbeing, belonging and heartfelt vulnerability descends.

This painting represents what many of us seek, an authentic connection, tender intimacy, mutual acceptance and deep loving friendship.  The softness of the palette suggests the warmth, trust and safeness where one can become truly lovingly intertwined.  

​Original oil on canvas 30"x40" SOLD

The Fabric of Recovery


Adversity invariably leads to a period of recovery involving many contributors who in turn are woven into the very fabric of that recovery.  They may be family, friends, or clinicians but it may also be the stranger in the street who glances you a smile when you feel most alone or otherwise shows you a kindness. All these are woven into the fabric of our recovery making it stronger, more resilient and of course more colourful.  


I have deliberately loosened up my normal approach to my work to reflect the haphazard way recoveries grow; stitch by stitch.  I have chosen the compassionate colour of green using rich oils applied by a palette knife.


I sincerely hope and wish that your own fabric of recovery grows moment by moment into something beautifully human.  We all have a fabric of recovery as a reminder of our innate ability to heal against all the odds. 

​Original oil on canvas 70cmsx100cms" SOLD
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Little Kajaki
This painting follows on from Lustful Ruminations with a pattern motif still evoking a never-ending mental process of going over the same issues in a hope of making sense of the past.  


In the aftermath of Afghanistan I turned to art to express in a visual way the emotions, feelings, thoughts and meanings associated with that period of my life.


It is a beautiful country and I have tried to reflect that in this piece named after a village in the north of Helmand Province which has particular significance for me.  In my own mix of blue I used an enormous amount of one of the most expensive and rare pigments in the art world, Lapis Lazuli, obtained from the semi-precious stone mined in Afghanistan.  Using a pigment from a part of the world I cared so much about and transforming it into a meaningful work of art and beauty is my own way of re-framing the past and remembering the people of that land.

Oil on Canvas 24"x24" ​SOLD