Cover Artist Bridgette Martin

By Gina Malone

For Bridgette Martin, the guiding word in her life and in her art is wonder. She intentionally embraces different processes and experimentations for every piece she creates as a way of feeding her own sense of amazement and appreciation. “For me, creativity isn’t confined to the studio,” she says. “It’s a way of moving through the world with curiosity and paying attention to the beauty in everyday moments.” And this is what she hopes viewers find in her contemporary landscapes that use oil, acrylics and a variety of mixed media, including modeling paste and gold leaf. “My hope,” she says, “is that each finished piece captures not only the beauty of a place but also a sense of peace, wonder and connection.”

Bridgette grew up in Dayton, OH, in a family that nurtured imagination and artistic exploration. On family trips, her father would often pull their van off the road to photograph the scenery. “As an adult, I’ve inherited my father’s fascination with light, landscape and the freedom found in a good road trip,” she says. “I find inspiration through the windshield of my car, driving back roads in search of scenes that quietly demand attention.” Although she lives and creates in Charlotte, it is often Western North Carolina, where she vacationed as a child and where several family members live today, that beckons as she searches for landscapes to paint.

She earned an MA in Art Education from Syracuse University and spent 20 years working full time as an art teacher while managing to work on her own art as well. While teaching, she encouraged students “to be curious, take creative risks and look at the world through a creative lens. Now, I find myself embracing that same invitation,” she says. “I give myself permission to play, experiment and continually push beyond what feels comfortable, and there is so much joy in that process.”

She begins each painting with language, “a handwritten layer of words that serve as both mantra and a prayer.” Examples are expressions like grateful, guide me or use me for a purpose greater than myself, and, she says, they “become part of the foundation, lifting the work beyond my own hands and infusing each piece with intention before a single landscape begins to emerge.”

Next, she builds an underpainting unique to each work. “Sometimes I incorporate modeling paste to create texture, gold leaf to introduce a subtle glow or vibrant acrylic and oil paints that will peek through later layers,” she says. “The final layers are built with oil paint, often enriched with oil sticks and expressive mark-making. As each layer is added, the painting evolves organically, revealing unexpected moments of light, depth and movement.”

While she is painting, Bridgette says, she becomes completely immersed in the work. “Life is fleeting, and I don’t take this opportunity for granted,” she says. “Every day I step into the studio, I’m reminded how fortunate I am to spend my days creating the work that I hope brings peace, hope and a sense of wonder to others. We are only on this planet for a short time, and creating art feels like one of the ways I’m meant to contribute while I’m here.”

Fellow artist Jean Cauthen says that Bridgette’s paintings reflect their artist. “Her energy and spirit are infused in every work,” Cauthen says. “She has focused much of that energy into her brushwork and her ability to capture a particular space and time in a fresh and surprising way.”

Because of Bridgette’s attachments to WNC and the sense that it’s “deeply woven” into her life, the devastation after Helene affected her deeply. “Driving down the Saluda Grade, I felt a quiet nudge in my spirit to create a body of work inspired not by the devastation but by the remarkable goodness that emerged from it,” she says. “That journey became If These Mountains Could Speak, a collection inspired by the voices of those who lived through the storm. I gathered personal stories of compassion, resilience and hope, pairing each one with a painting that reflected its spirit. My hope was to create more than a series of landscapes. I wanted each painting to honor the resilience of this community and remind us that, even in our darkest moments, compassion has the power to rise above tragedy.”

Ultimately, she hopes that her paintings inspire others to notice nature, the light, the beauty of the world. “When I’m hiking or painting outdoors,” she says, “I’m reminded that nature has a quiet way of speaking to us. It’s found in the light filtering through the trees, the movement of clouds across the sky, the changing seasons and the stillness that invites us simply to be present.”

Find Bridgette Martin’s work regionally at Seven Sisters Gallery in Black Mountain. Learn more at SevenSistersGallery.com.