Lydia Martin

Contemporary realist artist, Lydia Martin, has created a series of oil paintings inspired by the traditional images associated with the popular Mexican game, Lotería, a version of bingo which utilizes pictorial cards instead of letters and numbers. Using the game’s stock images as her focus, the artist works across genres—such as the figure (“La Sirena,” “El Musico,” “La Bota”), interior (“El Sol”), still life (“La Estrella,” “La Maceta,” “El Diablito”) and landscape ("El Arbol")—to offer fresh interpretations of the concepts that stand behind the game’s rich folkloric history. The artist has invited illustrator, Kseniya Galper, to hand create Loteria cards to act as gallery labels to her paintings. In summer, 2015, the Artist held a solo show entitled, "Lydia Martin: Lotería II" at the Whistler House Museum of Art, Lowell, MA. To over 125 visitors attending the exhibit's opening reception, Lydia talked about the creative process of this long term ongoing painting series as well as lectured on the history of the Latin American game of chance, Lotería. Awarded a 2013 Whiting Foundation Fellowship to study in Paris, France, Martin's works have been included in juried and invitational gallery and museum exhibitions across the country, receiving awards in oil painting and pastel. Internationally, her works have also been included in private and public collections in Italy, France and the Netherlands. Recognized by the Art Career Project as one of the "15 Notable Art Professors in Boston 2014," she has taught classes in drawing, painting, perspective, printmaking, paper making, architectural rendering, figure drawing, portrait painting, contemporary realism painting and Trompe l'oeil /mural painting techniques at Suffolk University. The artist attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the Massachusetts College of Art and West Chester University. Visit Lydia Martin's website at: www.lydiamartinstudio.com .