DEL MARTIN "COMING HOME" EXHIBIT TO SHOW AT JUNE'S FIRST FRIDAY

Del Martin is coming back to her home when she brings her art exhibition, “Home Again,” to the Creative Arts Guild’s First Friday.

This one-woman show is one of the Guild’s monthly featured events, allowing friends, fans and area art-lovers the opportunity to visit with the artist, enjoy her paintings and have a party all at the same time.

The reception and exhibit opening takes place Friday, June 5, from 5:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m. at the Creative Arts Guild at 520 W. Waugh St in Dalton, Georgia.

“This is the third year of this homecoming for me, and it is always so special,” Martin said. “I began my art career at the Creative Arts Guild, and I love seeing old friends at this show, and meeting new ones!”

Ms. Martin invites Dalton residents to come to the reception to mix and mingle and enjoy her most recent paintings from Cortona and Tuscany, from her trip to Barbados to visit former Daltonian Ginger Barton, and from north Georgia and everyday scenes of Southern living.

A lifelong artist, Del Martin was born and raised in Dalton. As a girl, she was an exhibitor at the inaugural Powers Crossroads Country Fair and Art Festival in Newnan, Ga., and a mainstay at the Creative Arts Guild Firehouse Festival, where her barn wood paintings and custom-decorated river rocks were popular for many years. Her paintings and original works have been exhibited in numerous art festivals and gallery shows, most recently at the Chastain Art Gallery in Atlanta.

Martin earned her bachelor of fine arts degree at the University of Georgia, Lamar Dodd School of Art, where she graduated with honors. Her concentration was graphic design, with a minor in drawing and painting. As an undergraduate, she spent an unforgettable summer in Cortona, Italy, studying art with the University of Georgia Studies Abroad program in 1976. She continues her art studies today, participating in an annual painting workshop in Cortona as well as the annual Ringling School of Arts WildAcres workshop in the North Carolina mountains.

Martin¹s style has developed over the years, moving from a tighter, more realistic rendition during her early years of working as an illustrator, to her current energetic and loose use of pigment. Her artwork ranges from watercolors to pastels, but all of her paintings showcase her love of color and light as well as her empathic understanding of her subjects. Her paintings, Santa Gourds, and other original works reside in a number of private collections.

Del Martin¹s Home Again exhibit will continue at the arts guild throughout the entire month of June.