Introducing narrative painter and sculptor, Martin Williams

As a narrative artist, initially influenced by Picasso, de Chirico, Francis Bacon and the colour work of Diebenkorn, he has always been fascinated by the tales of Scottish romantic poet Robert Burns.

Martin’s creative desire at NAS thoroughly embraces the practices of drawing and painting alongside his love for sculpture, while at the same time in his art exploring digital and mechanical processes. While Martin’s sculpture tends to follow a more classical genre, in his painting Martin understands the perspectives viewers can hold in visual stories that convey human experiences and aspirations. His dual culturally-influenced art aims to be read across time, in different languages, and often inculcates the element of surprise, sometimes through the use of collage. His exploration in drawing and painting of the NAS Darlinghurst Gaol and chapel structure, and its usage underneath as a women’s bath-house (now the Margaret Olley drawing room), has focussed on the trials of inmates, including iconic poet Henry Lawson, and described through mood, atmosphere, as well as the use of iconography.

The sometimes fraught relationship, between Brett Whiteley whilst in London in the 60’s and Francis Bacon, is brought to the fore both in his drawing and painting, and particularly in his pastel work, ‘The Adoration of Saint Brett’. Amongst Martin's portrait studies, including those of himself, his work of artists Margaret Olley, Jeffrey Smart, Sir Sidney Nolan and Brett Whiteley, is particularly notable. Using the motif of Greek iconography and gold leaf, these artists are lauded within a pantheon of “Australian Saints of Paint,” He more deeply explores the human condition and viewer engagement through his unusual kinetic works “Rova Tomas” and his big yellow “Field of Gold”.