Adrian
Martinez is a nationally known artist based in Downingtown, Pennsylvania.His
work, which includes portraits, still lifes, landscapes and historical
paintings, combines a classical technique with an intensely emotional vision.
His art has been shown in galleries across the United States and is in
many public collections. In January of 2003 he completed a 10 x 18 foot three-panel mural which
was commissioned for the White House by United States President George W. Bush
and First Lady Laura Bush.In 2001
the President and Mrs. Bush chose him to design the White House
Christmas card (below; Second
Floor Corridor with Cassatt's "Mother
and Two Children").
Adrian
was born in Philadelphia
on September 12, 1949. When he was five, his family moved to
Washington
D.C.where he completed his early schooling. Adrian
grew up in poverty and found refuge in the
museums of the Smithsonian Institute.There
he was safe, and free to develop his growing love of art and history.After high school, he made the decision to study painting at the
Maryland
Institute of Art in Baltimore, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Fine
Arts degree.He was then accepted
into St. Martins
School of Art in London
where he obtained a Certificate of Studies. This
was not without some degree of difficulty due to his abrupt change from an
advanced student of abstract art to a painfully tentative student of realism. His time spent traveling and studying art in
Europe
brought about a change that set in motion the growth of his full
potential as an artist, while at the same time throwing him completely out of
the mainstream and separating him from most of his contemporaries.He became committed to realistic painting in the Western European
tradition.
Struggling with this new style, he realized he was not finished with his education
and pursued a Master of Arts degree in painting and printmaking from Purdue
University
in West Lafayette, Indiana.
After graduating from
Purdue, Adrian
taught art for a few years and eventually
accepted a job as the exhibit designer for the Kimbell Art Museum
in Fort Worth, Texas.Adrian
designed installations for some of the greatest Renaissance, Impressionist and
Asian art in the world.
He met many of
the leading art scholars of the day. In 1984 he left his job at the Kimbell and
devoted himself to painting full time.
Shortly after beginning his
career as an artist he met his wife, Leah, who was born and raised in Texas.
They have a son, Sebastian, who is also a native Texan.However, in 1995 the Martinez family left Fort Worth and moved to Chester
County, Pennsylvania.They currently
live in a beautiful Victorian home that also houses Adrian’s studio.
Adrian
Martinez is a nationally known artist based in Downingtown, 
Certificate of Studies. This
was not without some degree of difficulty due to his abrupt change from an
advanced student of abstract art to a painfully tentative student of realism. His time spent traveling and studying art in